Bulletin

Vol.26.No.l-January-1955

Chicago Natural
His tory Mus eum

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CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

January, 1955

Chicago Natural History Museum

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893

Roosevelt Road and Lake Sborc Drive, Chicago 5

Telephone: WAbash 2-9410

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lester Armour Henry P. Ishah

Sewell L. Avery Hughston M. McBain

Wm. McCoRuicK Blair Wiluam H. Mitchell

Walther Buchen John T. Pirie, Jr.

Walter J. Cumuings Clarence B. Randall

Joseph N. Field George A. Richardson

Marshall Field John G. Searle

Marshall Field, Jr. Solohon A. Smith

Stan-ley Field Louis Ware

Samuel Insull, Jr. John P. Wilson

OFFICERS

Stanley Field Pretident

Marshall Field Fint Viet-Pretideni

Samuel Insull, Jr Seemui Viee-Pmidtnl

Joseph N. Field Third Viet-Prexident

Solomon A. Smith Treasurer

Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary

John R. Millar Astitiaftt Secretary

THE BULLETIN

EDITOR
Clifford C. Gregg Director of the Muteum

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anihropolofy

Theodor Just C*te/ Curator of Botany

Sharat K. Roy Chief Curator of Geology

Karl P. Schmidt Chief Curator of ZaAogy

MAN.\GING EDITOR
H. B. Habte Publie Relatiom Coumel

ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Helen A. MacMinn Barbara Polikoff

Members arc requested to inform the Museum
promptly of changes of address.

'FILE-CABINET ZOO'
AIDS RESEARCH

Laura Brodie, Assistant in Zoology, has
discovered that there is no such thing as an
animal picture that is useless. Someday,
someone working on some problem will need
just the picture that she was going to dis-
card. Realizing this, it is clear that to
accomplish her mammoth task of collecting
and classifying animal pictures Miss Brodie
has had to resign herself to the certainty of
always being behind in her work.

Before Miss Brodie undertook the task
of building up the photographic files, the
different divisions of the Department of
Zoology obtained pictures for reference as
they were needed by the taxidermists or
scientists. In addition, each individual
often kept collections of his own. Now all
pictures are kept in one place, classified
according to one system, and are collected
with an eye to future as well as present
needs. The files have steadily grown to
include zoological pictures from magazines
and newspapers, from other museums, and
from zoological societies and conservation
departments. They are now a veritable
"file-cabinet zoo" with pictures of hundreds
of animals in varied poses carefully placed in
their own classified pigeonholes.

Among those who make extensive use of
the pictures in the files are the anatomists.

D. D wight Davis, Curator of Vertebrate
Anatomy, used them recently in his study
of the shoulder architecture of the bear.
Curator Davis wanted to determine how a
bear uses its legs when it climbs a tree.
Because he did not have ready access to
the habitat of free-roving bears (bears in
zoos rarely get near anjrthing faintly re-
sembling a tree) he had to dep)end, in part
at least, on what he could find out from
pictures. There were several illustrations
in the photographic files that helped him in
completing his work on the Fieldiana pub-
lication. The Shoulder Architecture of Bears
and Other Carnitores.

The photographic files have yielded
valuable information to our own Museum
artists and taxidermists as well as to sculpH
tors and commercial artists who have come
to the Museum on a photograph hunt.
Many magazine illustrators are city-bred
and, although they have a general idea of
what a lion looks like when it runs, they
find they need facts, not vague memories,
when the taskmaster of paf)er and pen
confronts them. Many of them have set up
temporary camp in Miss Brodie's office and
have made rough sketches on the basis of
the pictures they have been able to find
there.

During the course of a day requests for
all kinds of pictures may come into Miss
Brodie's office by mail or telephone. From
the standard request of an encyclopedia or
textbook for a certain animal picture there
is the completely unorthodox request of an
advertising-company artist who would like
a picture of a dog with a sheepish expression
or a horse slyly winking. Often there will
be a letter asking for a picture of the rabbit
— and Miss Brodie may have to write an
answering letter explaining that in her files
alone there are pictures of eight different
kinds of rabbits. Which one does the
person want?

Miss Brodie has also started work on a
supplementary index of pictures that appear
in publications available only in libraries
and that, consequently, cannot be placed
in her file. This is probably the only index
of its kind in existence. The photography
file itself is probably unique and, like many
things in the Museum, its growth has been
given impetus by the needs of people who
are always in search of facts.

STAFF SOTES

Three new Field Associates have been
appointed to the staff of the Department of
Zoology. They are: Dr. Robert L. Flem-
ing, who led the Museum's Himalaya Ex-
pedition in Nepal; Dr. Frederick J.
Medem, of Bogota, Colombia, and Dr.
Georg Haas, of the Hebrew University,
Jerusalem, Israel .... Dr. Margery C.
Carlson, Associate Professor of Botany at

-THIS MONTH'S COVER-

January- being a month of
snow and fur coats, we show on
our cover a most suitable mam-
mal, the snow leopard. Its fur
is two to four inches long, as it
lives at altitudes of from 7,000 to
13,000 feet in the high Himalayas.
Anyone with a fur coat like that
would certainly purr, but the
snow leopard, in common with
the lion, tiger, leopard, and jag-
uar, does not purr. This cat is a
rare mammal, and its hide is sel-
dom offered for sale. The habitat
group in William V. Kelley Hall
(Hall 17) of the Museum was pre-
pared by C. J. Albrecht, former
staff taxidermist, and the late
Charles A. Corwin, former staff
artist.

Northwestern University, has l)een ap-
pointed Associate in the Museum's Depart-
ment of Botany. She has conducted several
joint expeditions to Central America for
the Museum and the university . . . Dr.
Karl P. Schmidt, Chief Curator of
Zoology, recently discussed "Zoogeographic
Realms and Regions" before the zoology
seminar at the University of Michigan and
also conferred with herpetological colleagues
on the faculty .... Dr. Theodor Just,
Chief Curator of Botany, participated in a
symposium on "The Role of Systematics in
Modern Biology" held at Missouri Botanical
Garden, St. Louis .... Two young women
of the Museum staff — Mrs. .\lexander
(Barbara) Polikoff, Associate Public Rela-
tions Counsel, and Mrs. William D. (Pris-
cilla) Turnbull, Assistant in Fossil Verte-
brates— have resigned because of the de-
mands of motherhood . . . Dr. Donald
Collier, Curator of South American Ar-
chaeology and Ethnology, and George I.
Ouimby, Curator of North American
Archaeology and Ethnology, attended the
annual meeting of the American Anthro-
pological Association at Detroit in De-
cember. Mr. Quimby participated in a
round table discussion on prehistoric culture
change in the Great Lakes region.

The world is a poor affair if it does not
contain matter for investigation for the
whole world in every age. Nature does not
reveal all her secrets at once. We imagine
we are initiated in her mysteries: we are as
yet but hanging around her outer courts.

— Seneca.

The mode of life of the Indians who
formerly inhabited the Chicago area is
illustrated in exhibits in Mary D. Sturges
Hall (Hall 5).

January, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Pages

AMERICAN LOVE OF BALL GAME DATES BACK TO EVDL^NS

By JOHN RINALDO

ASSISTANT CURATOR OF ARCHAEOLOGY

RECENTLY INSTALLED in the Mu-
seum's Hall of Ancient and Modern
Indians of the Southwestern United States
(Hall 7) is an exhibit that illustrates several
important phases in the life and customs of
some prehistoric desert farmers of this region

CEREMONIAL DANCERS
As depicted on pottery design

as it existed in the period from about a.d. 700
to 1200. The mode of life shown in graphic
form in this exhibit was one of the most
highly developed in this area and included
such involved techniques as canal irrigation
of crops, the fabrication of mosaic plaques,
the elaborate carving of stone bowls and
paint palettes, and carving and etching
(with acid) of shell ornaments and copper
working.

What seems most remarkable about this
development is that such a complex mode
of living was evolved in the face of a harsh
desert environment. The climate in south-
ern Arizona, where these people lived, is
very hot and dry and the sandy surface of

the ground is sparsely covered with salt
bush and occasional thickets of mesquite
bush — plants that grow where scarcely any
other vegetation can survive. Nevertheless
these Indians, called Hohokam, managed to
grow corn as their staple crop by means of a
complex irrigation system extending for
miles along the Gila River. Like their
modern descendants, the Pima-Papago In-
dians, they also obtained food by gathering
such wild products as mesquite beans and
giant cactus fruit and, to a lesser extent, by
hunting.

The Hohokam built large villages, con-
sisting of clusters of single-room houses
built in shallow excavations. These houses
were rectangular or oblong in form. The
walls and roofs were supported and framed
with timbers and covered with smaller
timbers and earth. There was a covered
passageway near the middle of one side and
a basin-shaped firepit inside near the en-
trance.

Hohokam pottery was made of clay mixed
with finely ground granite and mica. The
vessels were made in a number of shapes

POTTERY USED IN CREMATION RITES
The Hohokam Indians cremated their dead

and decorated on the exterior with a great
variety of geometric and life-form designs
painted in red on a buff background.

However, these people went further than
the development of a high culture in the

face of an unfavorable environment — they
were also devotees of sport. They were
among many peoples in this part of the
continent and farther south into Mexico
and Central and South America who played
an unusual and spectacular ball game. This
was played with a rubber ball and bears
resemblances to tennis, soccer and basket-
ball. The resemblance to court tennis is
particularly amazing when the European
origin of this game and the American origin
of the Indian game are considered. For
example, it was played on a court similar to
a tennis court divided into halves by markers

t

SPINDLE WHORLS

Used in early weaving

and bounded by walls against which the ball
was played.

Here our real evidence concerning the
Hohokam game stops, although we may
infer from these and other details that the
{Continued on page If, column 1)

JANUARY 15 IS DEADLINE
FOR NATURE PHOTOS

The Museum and the Nature Camera
Club of Chicago, co-sponsors of the Tenth
Chicago International Exhibition of Nature
Photography to be held at the Museum
from February 1 to 28, join in reminding
all those entering prints or color slides that
the final deadline is January 15. Entries
received after that date cannot be considered
by the judges.

No line is drawn between amateur and
professional photographers in the compe-
tition. There are two separate divisions of
entries — prints and color slides, with entries
of four pictures permitted in each division
by each contestant. In both of these
divisions, entries, to be eligible, must fall
into one of three classifications: (1) Animal

Life, (2) Plant Life, and (3) General (this
section includes scenery, geological forma-
tions, clouds, and other natural phenomena
that do not fit into the two specific sections
of biological subjects). Except for special
prizes such as have been awarded by the
Photographic Society of America in previous
years, each classification has a full and equal
group of awards of medals and ribbons.

The judges are: M. Kenneth Starr,
Curator of Asiatic Archaeology and Eth-
nology at the Museum; Homer E. Holdren,
of the Museum's Division of Photography;
and three local camera experts: May Watts,
Fred Richter, and Erik Sorensen. Accepted
prints will be exhibited in Stanley Field
Hall. Color slides will be projected on two
Sunday afternoons, February 13 and 20, in
the James Simpson Theatre of the Museum.

Official entry forms containing detailed

information on the contest will be sent to
applicants by the Museum on request.
Photographs should be sent directly to the
Museum.

"Highlights Tours" Offered Daily

Free guide-lecture tours are offered
daily except Sundays under the title
"Highlights of the Exhibits." These tours
are designed to give a general idea of the
entire Museum and its scope of activities.
They begin at 2 p.m. on Monday through
Friday and at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Special tours on subjects within the range
of the Museum exhibits are available Mon-
days through Fridays by advance request.

Although there are no tours on Sundays,
the Museum is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Page .

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

January, 1955

INDIAN SPORTS-

{Continued from page S)
remainder of the game was probably much
like that of their southern contemporaries,
the Aztecs and Mayas, whose game is
pictured on the walls of their ball courts,
in the early native codices (manuscripts),
and wTitten up in the chronicles of the
Spanish explorers. The likeness to soccer
is that in most versions of the game the ball
could be struck only with the knees, but-
tocks, thighs or head but never with the
hands. In fact in the Indian game, if the

HOHOKAM B.\LL-COURT
The scene o( spectacular athletic games

ball was touched with the hands or with
other than the specified parts of the body,
it was counted as a fault and the opposing
side gained a point. The similarity to
basketball is found in one of the Maya
versions where an object of the game was
to drive the ball through a ring placed high
in the wall of the court. Another object
was to keep the ball in action while it was
on either side of a di\iding line and to try
to drive it into the field of the opposing
party, where, if the ball went dead, a point
was scored.

OFTEN 'played rough'

Among some groups a harder and heavier
ball was used than among others, and in
these games play frequently involved injury,
in which case participation with the heavier
ball was often considered a demonstration
of manhood. The wagering of high stakes
on the outcome was also frequently an
element of the game, clothing, featberwork,
emblems, and even slaves being wagered.

There is a great deal of evidence in the
native codices, the early chronicles, and the
decoration and orientation of the ball courts
to indicate that the game had a ceremonial
significance and symbolism. It has been
suggested that the court itself symbolizes
the sky and the ball the moon, the morning
or evening star, or some other heavenly
body. In other associations, it has been
suggested that it was symbolic of warfare
and quite possibly a substitute for war, in
%vhich case the players are the warriors for
opposing communities.

The exhibit was planned by Miss Elaine
Bluhm, Assistant in Archaeology, and Roger
T. Grange, Assistant in Anthropology, and
designed by Gustaf Dalstrom, Artist in the
Department of Anthropology.

Audubon Screen-Tour Oflered
at Museum January 9

The Illinois Audubon Society will present
its second screen-tour of the current season
in the James Simpson Theatre of the Mu-
seum on Sunday afternoon, January 9, at
2:30 o'clock. The lecturer, Alfred G. Etter,
a native Missourian and biologist, will show
his film "A Missouri Story." The movie
records the year-'round story of life on an
old Missouri farm tilled just as it was 75
years ago and shows its plant and animal
life, both wild and domestic. Admission is
free to the general public. Members of the
Illinois Audubon Society and Members of
the Museum are entitled to two reserved
seats on presentation of their membership
cards before 2:25 p.m.

ANGOLA COLLECTIONS
COMING TO MUSEUM

The Vemay-Transvaal Museum Expedi-
tion to Angola (Portuguese West Africa)
has successfully concluded its work, reports
its leader. Dr. C. Koch, well-known ento-
mologist and Professional Officer of the
Transvaal Museum. Through the courtesy
of the expedition's sponsor, Arthur S.
Vemay of New York, Chicago Natural
History Museum v^ill share in the collec-
tions, which number some 50,000 insects
and several hundred reptiles, birds, and
small mammals obtained in the course of
more than 13,000 miles of exploration.

Several of the regions explored that had
been considered terra incognita now are
penetrated by an entomological survey for
the first time. Dr. Koch states. Hazards of
deserts, mountains, high sand dunes, and
tall waterfalls had to be overcome. One of
the most important zoogeographical results
of the expedition was establishment of
evidence that the Namib Desert is probably
the most ancient desert on the African
continent. In addition to zoological re-
search, much data was obtained on botany,
archaeology, and South African history.

Besides Dr. Koch, the personnel of the
expedition included J. Balfour-Browne,
entomologist of the British Museum, and
the following members of the Transvaal
Museum staff: J. T. Robinson, anthro-
pologist; his assistant, K. C. Brain; and
L. Vari. The expedition was assisted also
by B. W. Zensinger of the South African
Bureau of Standards, Dr. E. Scherz of
Windhoek, and Dr. Zschokke, Chief Veteri-
nary Officer of Grootfontein.

VENEZUELAN SCIENTISTS

The Museum was host in December to
Brother Gines and Dr. Luis M. Carbonell
of Venezuela. Brother Gines is director of
the Sociedad de Ciencias Naturales of the
College of La Salle in C?raeas, Venezuela,
This society publishes a scientific journal
that appears three times during the year
and, in addition, a series, known as "Nove-
dades," that records species new to science.
Under his leadership, expeditions are made
to little-known or previously unexplored
parts of Venezuela with students or alumni
of the college who have received training in
fields of natural science. Vpluable contribu-
tions to the natural history, anthropology,
and archaeology of Venezuela have resulted
from such expeditions.

The purpose of Brother Ginfe' visit was
to arrange for exchange of si>ecimens and
publications between the Museum and the
Society of Natural Sciences of La Salle and
to get acquainted with members of the staff.
During his visit Brother Gines showed a
motion picture of the society's recent ex-
pedition to the Perija Mountains bordering
Colombia and Venezuela in the land of the
inhospitable Motilones Indians.

Dr. Carbonell, an alumnus of the College
of La Salle, participated both as physician
and collector of moUusca in the famous
expedition sponsored by the Venezuelan
government in 1951 to the headwaters of
the Orinoco River in Venezuela. He was
one of the party that finally reached the
ultimate source of th?t river. During his
visit at the Museum he showed colored
slides taken on that trip.

A spiral calendar covering three billion
years helps visitors to Frederick J. V. Skiff
Hall (Hall 37— Fossil Plants and Fossil
Invertebrates) to establish the relative
chronology of the various prehistoric crea-
tures illustrated in the exhibits.

Penny Stories for Children
Raised to 2 Cents

Because of unavoidable increases in pro-
duction costs, the Museum reluctantly has
increased the price of its leaflet "Museum
• Stories" from 1 cent to 2 cents each for
individual stories and from $1.75 to $2.75
for a complete set of the 183 available
stories on subjects in anthropology, botany,
geology, and zoology. Postage charges are
extra. Even with the increase, the prices
approximate only costs of production.
"Museum Stories" are prepared by the
guide-lecture staff of the Raymond Founda-
tion after consultation with the scientific
staff and are illustrated by Museum artists.
The stories tie in with the subjects of the
free movie-programs for children presented
by the Raymond Foundation in the James
Simpson Theatre during spring and autumn
and are distributed free to children attending
the programs.

The passenger pigeon, which flourished in
America untU comparatively recent years
but is now extinct, is shown in a group
exhibited in Stanley Field Hall.

January, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 5

INDIA'S MUSIC IS TIED TO BASIC CONCEPTS OF LIFE

The history of music in India goes back
to the legendary period, and many of the
instruments used at present are similar to
those of ancient times. At least fifty
different kinds of instruments are known,
most of them occurring in slightly varied
forms, and each having its local name in dif-
erent parts of the country. Examples of the
more important ones fill a large exhibition
case (Case No. 1) in Hall L.

In India, music and its reason for being
are interwoven with basic concepts of life and
with religion and ceremony; there is music
with connotations of sex, and music related
to the seasons of the year and to prayers
for rain to assure good crops. Thus, a

'VINA' PLAYER OF INDIA
This mandolin'Iike instrument, played either with
plectrums or Bngernails, is one of the classical
sources o£ Indian melody. Photograph Irom Day's
"Music and Musical Instruments of South India."

musician from our world may be startled
to learn that there are six "male tunes" in
Indian music, and his confusion may
increase when he hears of "female tunes"
and "child tunes" and the "Muts" or laws
which govern their classification.

Many tunes are supposed to be rendered
only at a certain season and even a certain
hour of the day, and any variation from such
specified times is considered a violation of
their beauty. There is a "Lord of the Rain"
melody to be played in July and August
when it is desired to precipitate a downpour.
There is a special tune dedicated to the
sunrise.

Stringed instruments, and instruments of
percussion, are the most numerous and
varied, although simple wind instruments
have been known from ancient times. Reed
instruments apparently came as a fairly
recent development. While some of these
instruments appear in much the same form
throughout the country, most of them show
many local varieties with limited distribution.

Most of India's musical instruments are
used chiefly for playing solos, or for accom-

panying the voices of singers. There are a
few modern court orchestras, but orchestral
music is a recent development, and has led
to the construction of new instruments or
modifications of the older types.

DRUMS ABE FAVORED

Like the peoples of other parts of the
Orient, as well as those of Africa and the
islands of the South Pacific, natives of India
seem to have a strong penchant for the music
of drums in preference to the more melodic
types of instruments. In the music of
Europe and America the drums in almost
all cases play merely a background role,
while interest centers chiefly on the airs
carried by the strings and the wind instru-
ments. In Oriental, African, and South Sea
Island music the other instruments are fre-
quently subsidiary to the drums, This
emphasis on the drums, together with the
fact that different scales of musical intona-
tion are used, is a causative factor in pro-
viding such a contrast between our music
and that of Orientals. To our unaccustomed
ears their most eminent virtuosi, playing
their favorite melodies, usually sound like
amateurs playing series of incoherent dis-
cords. It seems quite probable that, except
to those of their people who have adopted
western culture to some extent, our finest
symphonies played by the greatest orchestras
under the batons of Reiner or Stokowski
would likewise probably sound discordant
and irritating to the ear.

One of the instruments shown in the
Museum is the mridanga, the most common
and probably the most ancient of Indian
drums. This is a concert drum cut out of
wood, larger in the center than at the ends.

which are of unequal size so that each can
be tuned to a different pitch. Hands, finger
tips and wrists are worked in a peculiar
manner in playing this instrument, and its
mastery is regarded as a great art requiring
many years of practice. Another drum, the
dhol, is played either by hand or sticks. It
is used principally at weddings and other
festive occasions. A third common drum,
also favored for nuptial music, is the tabla,
composed of two separate drums, one usually
of metal and one of wood, which correspond
in purpose to the two dififerently-tuned ends
of the mridanga. Certain small varieties of
drums are used widely by beggars to attract
sympathetic passers-by.

SOME WINDLESS HORNS

A most striking curiosity is the nysasa-
ranga, composed of a pair of trumpet-like
brass horns, which are not played by the
mouth, but are held one on each side of the
throat against the larynx. Thus the vibra-
tions of the player's vocal cords are trans-
mitted into the instrument, inside of which
is fastened a delicate membrane obtained
from a spider's egg-case. This membrane
in turn vibrates, and transmits the vibration
to the column of air in the wide end of the
horn, producing an oboe-like coloring of the
singing voice. This instrument is also
played in orchestras with the player emitting
no sound whatever from his mouth.

The commonest stringed instrument of
India is the tamburi which appears in numer-
ous variations. It has four metal strings
played with the fingers, and a sounding
bowl carved from wood or made of a gourd.
Played with a bow is the sarangi, Indian
(Continued on page 8, column 1 )

This particular aj

A TYPICAL ORCHESTRA OF INDIA

gregation of musicians was organized by Maharajah Sir S. M. Tagore

Page 6

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

January, 1955

HOW CAVE BIRDS FIND THEIR WAY BY ECHOES

By AUSTIN L. RAND

CURATOR OP BIRDS

WHEN IN THE MOUNTAINS of
southeast New Guinea with Archbold
Expeditions I found a cave in which swifts
were nesting. Far back in the cave they
had glued their cup-shaped nests against
the walls, laid their eggs there, and were
raising their young. Though I turned out
my light and waited to adapt my eyes to
the darkness there was no trace of a lighten-
ing of the gloom. In what seemed to be
complete darkness the swifts were coming
and going. At that time I had no inkling
of how they found their way.

A clew came with the discovery of the
manner in which bats find their way in

in birds. In Venezuela there is a peculiar
bird known as the oil bird, which resembles
a nighthawk or nightjar. It spends the day
in caves and nests there, far in, beyond
where the light of day penetrates.

Dr. Griffin visited some of the caves and
exposed photographic film in their recesses
where the birds were flying. The film
shows no perceptible darkening after nine
minutes of exposure. As the birds flew
about in the darkness they were noisy. In
particular, when flying about in the caves
they gave loud sharp clicks that were re-
peated rapidly and almost continuously.
Dr. Griffin, using the recording equipment
he employed in studying bat echo-location,
found that these clicks had a frequency of

darkness. "Blind as a bat" is an old saying,
but actually bats have quite normal eyes.
Though their eyes are smaller propor-
tionately than those of many other mam-
mals, such as mice, they are not nearly as
small as the degenerate eyes of moles and
shrews, and they appear to be useful. How-
ever, bats fly in the complete darkness of
caves and fly by night.

Experimentally it has been shown that
bats avoid obstacles even when they are
blinded. This fact was recognized at least
one hundred fifty years ago, and a special
sense was postulated to explain it. However,
recent experiments at Harvard University
have demonstrated that bats, deprived of
sight, are able in flight to locate objects by
echo-location. Bats utter high frequency,
supersonic, cries with their vocal apparatus
and hear the echoes with their ears. Thus
they are able to perceive the location of the
objects and fly accordingly.

Dr. Donald Griffin, who worked on this
bat-orientation problem at Harvard, was
able to apply the results to a similar problem

about 6,000 to 10,000 cycles. This is well
within the range of human ears, which have
a range of about 20 to 20,000 cycles. There
were no ultra-high frequency sounds.

Tentatively it was concluded that the oil
birds were using these sounds in echo-
locating objects to guide their flight in the
Stygian darkness. It remained to test this
experimentally. Several birds were caj)-
tured and taken to a house where a room
was fitted up for experiments. With light
the birds flew about easily avoiding the
walls. In darkness they performed equally
well, the observers following their move-
ments by the sounds the birds made — the
noise of their wings and the clicking sounds.

Then the following experiment was made.
The birds had their ears plugged with cotton
sealed in with duco cement and were then
released in the dark room. A pronounced
difference was seen. The birds now flew
into the walls. They could no longer avoid
collision. These birds were then flown in
the lighted room. They easily avoided the
walls. The cotton plugs were then removed

and the birds again flown in the darkened
room. They flew as well as they had pre-
viously in the light and in their earlier
untreated condition in the dark.

There seems no doubt that these birds
use acoustic orientation — echo-location — to
guide them in their flights in the darkness
of the caves and in the experimentally
darkened room. This is similar to the
acoustic orientation of bats but differs in
that the sounds used are within the range of
human hearing.

Probably the swifts I saw in New Guinea
used the same principle in finding their way
to their nests in the dark recesses of caves.
Perhaps the swifts use their voices for this,
or perhaps they use the fluttering noise of
their wings.

It is interesting that only recently has
this principle been adopted for use in sound-
ing ocean-depth, in charting harbors, and
in locating floating derelicts and other
hazards to navigation. Some bats and some
birds have been using it for a long time, but
only after we discovered it independently
did we find that they had used it before us.

BOTANIST TO EXPLORE
'LOST WORLD' AGAIN

When Dr. Julian A. Steyermark, Curator
of the Phanerogamic Herbarium, sailed for
Venezuela late in December he was con-
tinuing an expedition that, in reality, began
in April, 1953. At that time he started out
to explore the summit of ChimantS-tepuf,
the largest table mountain in the remote
reaches of Venezuela's "lost world." So
arduous and treacherous was the task of
breaking trail to the summit of this moun-
tain that by the time the summit was gained
few days were left in which to explore the
area. But even quick exploration revealed
unusual plants (some of which are new
genera), four species of snails new to science,
a rare frog (only two of which had been
found previously), and bats (on which a
paper has already been published by Colin
C. Sanborn, Curator of Mammals). Curator
Steyermark determined to return in 1954
to continue his explorations.

The present expedition is a joint enterprise
of New York Botanical Garden and Chicago
Natural History Museum. Dr. John Wur-
dack of the Botanical Garden, a veteran of
several trips to the "lost world," is co-leader
of the expedition with Dr. Steyermark.
Transportation to Venezuela is being pro-
vided by Gulf Oil Company.

Wurdack and Steyermark plan to use the
trail Steyermark cut last year. Conse-
quently their ascent of the mountain will
be accomplished much more quickly than was
possible in 1953. Full time, from the day
they reach the summit until April, will be
spent in culling the hitherto unknown
botanical and zoological riches of Chimantd-
tepul.

January, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 7

Books

(All books reviewed in the Bulletin are
available in The Book Shop of the Miiseum.
Mail orders accompanied by remittance in-
cluding postage are promptly filled.)

STRAY FEATHERS FROM A BIRD
MAN'S DESK. By Austin L. Rand. 224
pages. Illustrated. Doubleday and Com-
pany, Inc., Garden City, New York,
1955. $3.75.

A bewildering number and variety of bird
books have deluged the public in recent
years. Even the professional ornithologist
has some difficulty in keeping track of the
book titles alone, and one might be pardoned
if he assumes that birds as a subject have
been treated more than fully — that little of
interest or novelty concerning them remains
to be said.

The fallacy of such a cynical viewpoint
is now ably demonstrated by Dr. Austin L.
Rand, the Museum's Curator of Birds. In
this volume the author explores the world
of birds and their curious and interesting
habits with sympathetic understanding
based on years of observation and study.
Under his skillful guidance the reader meets
old bird-friends in unsuspected roles and
from time to time is introduced to oddities of
bird life that seem incredible. By using a
style that is commendably informal and by
interspersing his text with amusing anec-
dotes. Curator Rand succeeds in making
even the commonplace entertaining, while
his accounts of the unusual are exciting
adventures in bird study that will appeal
to the general reader and advanced bird-
student alike. Members of the Museum
and others who have enjoyed bird articles
by Rand in the Museum Bulletin will find
them republished here for a larger audience,
but most of the chapters are new, especially
written for this book.

COVERS WIDE RANGE

Stray Feathers, as the title implies, is
essentially a collection of essays that reflects
the range of our present knowledge of bird
behavior and kindred subjects. Each of the
sixty topics discussed in the volume is an
independent unit that can be selected at
random and enjoyed without reference to
the others. The result is a distinctive col-
lection of essays that serves as a skillfully
conducted survey of much that is interesting
in ornithology.

The author ranges the world for his sub-
jects and focuses attention on the strange
or little-known characteristics of each.
While the curiosities of bird life are fre-
quently emphasized, the book is in no sense
an addition to the lamentable "gee whiz"
school of natural-history literature that
seeks merely to astound the reader. Stray

Feathers not only presents the phenomenon
but also seeks to interpret it and provoke
the reader to further inquiry. In no instance
is the treatment of a topic exhaustive, nor
is it intended to be. For those who wish to
pursue a subject further or check the
author's sources, there is a useful appendix
listing principal references by chapter
headings.

human-like CHARACTERISTICS

Layman readers may be astounded and
often amused by the striking similarity of
various habits in certain birds and in man.
Birds that use cows as hunting dogs, birds
that feed their prospective mates, birds that
baby-sit or have co-op nursery-nests, birds
that use tools, and other curiosities of the
bird world have their human counterparts
and may cause one to reflect upon the basis
of our proclaimed superiority. The percep-
tive reader will note, however, that the
author avoids capitalizing on his material
by drawing unfounded anthropomorphic in-
ferences. To Rand, the objective scientist,
birds remain birds, vastly interesting in
their own right. That his birds are often
more entertaining than many of our human
associates is no contrivance of the author.

The book is amusingly illustrated with
sixty piquant line-drawings by Ruth John-
son, talented member of the Museum staff.
Each of the cartoons is designed to suggest
the central theme of its associated text and
in this they are remarkably successful. The
text and its illustrations are a happy com-
bination. One can safely predict that a
book so refreshingly different as Stray
Feathers will pave the way for one entitled,
More Stray Feathers by the same author
and artist.

Emmet R. Blake
Associate Curator of Birds

INDIAN CORN IN OLD AMERICA.

By Paul Weatherwax. The Macmillan
Company, New York, 1954. ix— 253
pages, 75 figures, 3 color plates. $7.50.

Indian corn or maize first became known
to Europeans as a result of Columbus's
initial voyage to America. When he failed
to find a shorter route to the spices and
silks of the East, the Spaniards turned their
eyes to the gold of the New World. At the
time they did not suspect that the discovery
of maize was of far greater value than the
golden treasures of the Aztecs, Chibchas,
and Incas.

Archaeologists have long been interested
in the history and origin of maize because
of its important role in the development of
Indian civilizations in Middle and South
America. Botanists, also, are very interested
in maize, and the ancient remains of Indian
corn found by archaeologists furnish them
invaluable evidence on its history and clues
to the nature of its wild ancestors. Thus

'THE ENGLISH PHYSICIAN
ENLARGED' IS HERE

Recently a curious and interesting little
book entitled The English Physician En-
larged was given to the Botany Library by
Holly R. Bennett, of Chicago. It was
written by Nicholas Culpepper, who described
himself on the title page as "Gent. Student
in Physick and Astrology." This copy,
which was printed in London in 1714, is
one of the many issues of a book that w?s
first published in 1652. It aroused much
indignant opposition among the orthodox
medical practitioners of the time, who
objected to what they considered Cul-
pepper's unscientific methods. Believing
that each disease was caused by a planet,
its cure, according to him, was to be found
in a plant controlled by an opposing planet,
or occasionally "by sympathy," that is, by
a plant controlled by the same planet that
caused the disease. He described "such
things only as grow in England, they being
most fit for English bodies," gave astro-
logical conditions under which the herbs
should be gathered, the parts to be used in
each case, and lists of the various ailments
that could be cured by them. It was a
very popular work among unscientific
people for over a century after its first
appearance — indeed, a version of it was
published as recently as 1932.

Edith M. Vincent

the problem of corn has become one for
collaboration between anthropology and
botany.

Paul Weatherwax is a botanist who has
traveled among the corn-growing Indians of
North, Central, and South America in pur-
suit of information on the varieties, methods
of cultivation, and uses of Indian corn. In
this book he sums up what he and other
botanists have learned about maize during
many years of study. He attempts to "re-
construct a picture of the corn plant and
the system of household arts based on it as
they existed in ancient America, with some
consideration of the part that corn played
in the everyday life, thinking, and the
artistic expression of the peoples of the
hemisphere before Columbus came."

Although the chapters on the morphology,
growth, and genetics of maize are necessarily
technical and cannot be fully understood
without some elementary knowledge of
botany, the style is stimulating and readable,
and the interest of the text is enhanced by
the author's well-selected photographs of
excellent quality.

Donald Collier
Curator of South American Archaeology
and Ethnology

Birds found in the Chicago region are
exhibited in three habitat groups in Hall 20.

Page 8

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

January, 1955

MUSIC OF INDIA-

(Continued from page 5)

equivalent of our violin. In addition to
three or four main strings of gut or metal
played with the bow, it has from fifteen to
twenty-four additional metal strings which
vibrate sympathetically and augment the
sound although they are not bowed. It is a
favorite instrument for dances, weddings —
and beggars, especially religious mendicants.

MANDOLIN-LIKE INSTRUMENTS

A classical musical instrument of India is
the vina, which might be regarded as a
member of the mandolin family. The
strings are played with plectrums or the
fingernails, and resonance is provided by a
pair of large gourds. More like our mando-
lins is the siiar, one of the commonest of the
stringed instruments. It is played like the
vina, but has a single resonating bowl made
of half a large gourd. Among other instru-
ments shown in the exhibit are: a two-
stringed instrument made of a coconut shell;
the sankhu, a conch shell played with a
metal mouthpiece; the vansi or flute; vari-
ous kinds of gongs; the taus, a stringed
instrument with a bowl carved to represent
a peacock and in consequence often called
the "peacock fiddle," and the nagasara or
Indian oboe, which is made both in wood
and silver or other metals.

It should be pointed out that most of the
names used above for instruments are the
local ones by which they are known in the
particular districts whence the Museum's
specimens came. The same instruments, or
their equivalents, are often called by totally
different names in other regions of India, due
to the great multiplicity of languages spoken
within the country's vast realm.

ZOOLOGIST RETURNS
FROM TRINIDAD

When paralytic rabies broke out in 1925
among the cattle in Trinidad, it was Dr.
J. L. Pa wan, government bacteriologist, who
traced its spread to the vampire bat. Be-
cause of his interest in this investigation,
he invited Colin Campbell Sanborn, the
Museum's Curator of Mammals, to Trinidad
to study the bats in order to prepare a key
to all bats of the island. Under his National
Science Foundation grant. Curator Sanborn
spent about three weeks there in November.

All government officials were so co-
operative in helping with permits, guides,
and transportation that Curator Ssnborn
was able to visit eight localities in eleven
days, seeing bats in various types of roosts,
and to collect about 200 specimens repre-
senting 20 different species. In this field
work he was especially aided by Arthur M.
Greenhall, Curator of the Royal Victoria
Institute Museum, and Errol Ache, Senior
Bat-Inspector. The government has long

maintained teams to control the vampire
bats, and the inspectors know every cave,
building, or hollow tree that harbors a bat
roost. Both Greenhall and Ache will be
co-authors of the key, with Sanborn.

It is estimated that nearly 50 different
species of bats live in Trinidad. The fauna
is mainly like that of the mainland, Vene-
zuela, from which it is separated by about
seven miles at the nearest point. A few
species are confined to the island, however.

TWO-FACED CHARACTERS

OF BENEVOLENT AIM

Although being two-faced is not some-
thing we are accustomed to boasting about,
among the gods of ancient Rome standards
were quite different. Janus, the deity after
whom the month January is named, was
conceived by the Romans as having two
faces. Thus he was admirably fitted for
looking into the past and future at the same

AFRICAN EQUIVALENT OF JANUS

time. New Year's Day was the principal
festival of Janus, and on this occasion
people were extremely careful of what they
did and said because they felt that their
actions and words would influence occur-
rences of the coming year. Being able to
look two ways without turning one's head
was regarded as useful in many other cul-
tiires as well. In the present century the
natives of the Cameroons in Africa made
skin masks (pictured above) that medicine
men wore during ceremonies for casting out
evil spirits. Such masks, which at one time
were made of human skin, are now made of
antelope hide.

Some of the world's most remarkable
examples of craftsmanship in gold come
from sites of prehistoric culture in Colombia.
Examples may be seen at the Museum in
Stanley Field Hall and in H. N. Higin-
botham Hall of Gems and Jewels (Hall 31).

NEW MEMBERS

(November 16 to December 15)

Associate Members

George R. Beach, Jr., W. A. Bowersox,
Miss June Atchison Laflin, Mrs. Louis E.
Laflin, Jr., Miss Mary Josephine Lafiin,
Arthur J. Lowell, David B. McDougal,
Walter B. Ratner, Willis H. Scott

Sustaining Member

Mrs. Nell Y. Searle

Annual Members

Victor C. Armstrong, Edward P. Berens,
Thomas Boal, Malcolm S. Bradway, Richard
C. Brandt, George E. Brosseit, Mrs. Arthur
R. Cahill, John M. Coates, Paul F. Collins,
W. F. Crawford, Miss Florence W. Cuth-
bert, A. T. Draffkorn, Victor Elting, Jr.,
C. H. Evans, Clinton E. Frank, Thomas
Fullerton, Benjamin E. Goodman, Gregory
Gumbrell, Arthur Hahn, Parker Franklin
Hallberg, T. J. Haven, Jr., Lawrence J. Hay,
John Hehnke, Arthur W. Heuser, Alan
Hindmarch, Fred J. Hobscheid, Dr. Paul
Hochberg, William J. Howe, John H.
Hutchinson, Dr. George N. Jessen, Charles
H. G. Kimball, Miss Louise A. King, Lyn-
wood B. King, Jr., Daniel D. Kipnis,
Thomas Kirchheimer, Z. P. Klikun, Dr.
Philip R. Latta, George N. Leighton, Mrs.
K. K. Lilien, Dr. Louis R. Limarzi, Victor
M. Luftig, Mrs. D. Claude Luse, Mrs.
Robert H. Lynn, H. E. MacDonald, J. A.
Mason, John F. Milliken, Peter Mooth,
Donald O'Toole, Harry H. Patrick, Peter
G. Peterson, Mrs. Gordon L. Pirie, Kenneth

C. Prince, Miss Bessie Radovich, Mrs.
Howard F. Roderick, Mrs. Milly M. Rosen-
wald, John S. Runnells, F. H. Sasser,
Nicholas L. Simmons, E. L. Stauffacher,
Clifford L. Stivers, Lawrence C. Stix, Jr.,
Edgar O. Stoffels, Edmond B. Stofft, Mrs.
E. J. Stone, Frank W. Sullivan, Dr. Irving

D. Thrasher, H. R. Velvel, Lafeton Whit-
ney, Lydon Wild, Bradford Wiles

GIFTS TO THE MUSEUM

Following is a list of the principal gifts
received during the past month:

Department ol Botany:

From: Dr. J. F. T. Berliner, Chicago— 10
hand-samples of wood (Larrea tridentata).
El Paso, Tex.; Eleanor McGilliard, Chat-
tanooga— 2 Silphium; Museum National
d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris — 11 Venezuelan
plants; Dr. E. Naylor, Fayette, la. — Ster-
culia platanifolia, Tex.; T. J. Newbill, Ft.
Lauderdale, Fla. — 2 Anthurium, Colombia
and Panama; E. J. Palmer, Webb City, Mo.
—325 plants

Department of Geology:

From: Max Robert, Paris — phosphate ore
containing shark's tooth, Algeria

Department of Zoology:

From: Chicago Zoological Society, Brook-
field, 111. — 1 turtle, 2 snake skeletons, Mada-
gascar and Africa; Roger Conant, Phila-
delphia— 2 garter snakes (neotypes). South
Carolina; Dr. David Cook, Detroit— 29
water mites (11 holotypes, 18 paratypes)

PRINTED BY CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PRESS

Page 2

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

February, 1955

Chicago Natural History Museum

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893

Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago 5

Telephone: WAbash 2-9410

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lester Armour Henry P. Ishah

Sbwell L. Avery Hughston M. McBain

Wm. McCormick Blair Wiluam H. Mitchell

Walther Buchen John T. Pirie, Jr.

Walter J. Cumhings Clarence B. Randall

Joseph N. Field George A. Richardson

Marshall Field John G. Searle

Marshall Field, Jr. Solomon A. Smith

Stanley Field Louis Ware

Samuel Insull, Jr. John P. Wilson

OFFICERS

Stanley Field President

Marshall Field Pint Vice-President

Hughston M. McBain Second Vice-President

Joseph N. Field Third Vice-President

Solomon A. Smith Treasurer

CUFFORD C. Gregg Director and Secretary

John R. Millar Assistant Secretary

THE BULLETIN

EDITOR
CUFFORD C. Gregg Director of the Museum

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology

Theodor Just Chief Curator of Botany

Sharat K. Roy Chief Curator of Geology

Karl P. Schmidt Chief Curator of Zoology

MANAGING EDITOR
H. B. Harte Public Relations Counsel

ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Helen A. MacMinn Jane Rockwell

Members are requested to inform the Museum
promptly of changes of address.

EXPEDITIONS OF 1955

Compared with some years, the Museum's
1955 program of expeditions is modest in
scope, limitations being imposed by the
funds available.

The largest and most ambitious project,
as it has been for some years past, will be
the Archaeological Expedition to the South-
west, which will go into its 21st season of
operations during the summer (there have
been nine previous seasons in Colorado and
eleven in New Mexico). Dr. Paul S. Martin,
Chief Curator of Anthropology, who has
directed these expeditions, will again be
leader, and Dr. John B. Rinaldo, Assistant
Curator of Archaeology, will be his principal
associate. Gradually these expeditions have
been reconstructing some 4,000 years of the
culture and history of extinct tribes. The
archaeologists may complete their work in
New Mexico this season and transfer their
activity to sites in Arizona.

Dr. Julian A. Steyermark, Curator of the
Phanerogamic Herbarium, is already in
Venezuela on a botanical expedition to the
"lost world" area. This work is being con-
ducted as a joint enterprise of the Museum
and New York Botanical Garden. Dr. John
Wurdack of the latter is co-leader with
Curator Steyermark.

Emil Sella, Curator of Exhibits in Botany,
will collect material for the American-woods
exhibits, and other botanical specimens, on

an expedition during the summer to the
coast of Washington, Oregon, and northern
California.

Dr. Sharat K. Roy, Chief Curator of
Geology, will conduct an expedition to
several Central American countries, where
he will continue his research on volcanoes.

Dr. Kari P. Schmidt, Chief Curator of
Zoology, will collect reptiles and amphibians
in New Mexico and Arizona. He will be
accompanied by D. Dwight Davis, Curator
of Anatomy, and Hymen Marx, Assistant
in the Division of Reptiles.

Henry S. Dybas, Associate Curator of
Insects, is scheduled for an entomological
expedition in Georgia and northern Florida.
Loren P. Woods, Curator of Fishes, is now
in southwestern Mexico collecting marine
fishes in tidepools of the Acapulco area. He
will also collect in the Salina Cruz region.

Dr. Robert L. Fleming, a Museum Field
Associate, will return to Nepal and resume
the collecting, principally of birds, in which
he has been engaged for several years.
Others who will continue collecting begun
in previous years are Field Associate D. S.
Rabor in the Philippines and Celestino
Kalinowski who is making general zoological
collections in Peru on the Pacific slopes of
the Andes. Gerd H. Heinrich, who spent
all of last year on a Museum expedition to
Angola (Portuguese West Africa) financed
by the Conover Game Bird Fund, will
complete his work and return early in 1955.

Although not going on actual expeditions,
a number of other members of the scientific
staff will engage in various study projects:
Rupert L. Wenzel, Curator of Insects, at
the Canadian National Museum in Ottawa ;
Colin C. Sanborn, Curator of Mammals, at
museums in New York and Washington,
D.C.; Curator of Fishes Woods at various
western museums; and Miss Pearl Sonoda,
Assistant in the Division of Fishes, at a
marine biological station on the east coast.

Hughston McBain Elected
2nd Vice President

Hughston M. McBain, Chairman of the
Board of Marshall Field and Company, was
elected Second Vice-President of Chicago
Natural History Museum at the annual
meeting of the Board of Trustees held on
January 17. Mr. McBain, who has been a
Museum Trustee since 1946, succeeds
Samuel Insull, Jr. Mr. Insull remains a
Trustee, in which capacity he has served
since 1929; but because of his need for more
time to devote to personal business, he asked
to be relieved of the vice-presidency. He
had been a vice-president since 1946.

At the same meeting Stanley Field was
re-elected President for his 47th consecutive
year in that office. All other officers were
re-elected. They are: Marshall Field, First
Vice-President; Joseph N. Field, Third
Vice-President; Solomon A. Smith, Treas-
urer; Colonel Clifford C. Gregg, Director

'THIS MONTH'S COVER-

An example of a nature photo-
graph that combines realism with
an effect that could be a conscious
design is "Bull Parade," which
appears on our cover. It is the
work of Kan Hing-fook, of Hong
Kong, who submitted it as an en-
try in the Tenth Chicago Inter-
national Exhibition of Nature
Photography to be held in Stan-
ley Field Hall from February 1 to
28 under the joint auspices of the
Nature Camera Club of Chicago
and the Museum. A full account
of this event appears on page 5.

and Secretary; and John R. Millar, Assistant
Secretary.

FOUR ADDED TO CONTRIBUTOR ROLL

The names of four friends of the Museum
were added to the roll of Contributors
by the Trustees (Contributors are those
whose gifts of funds or materials total be-
tween $1,000 and $100,000 in value, and
their names are inscribed on a plaque in
perpetuity). Three of the new Contributors
are Mrs. Hermon Dunlap Smith, of Lake
Forest, Illinois, who has long made valuable
contributions to the Division of Birds;
Evett D. Hester, of Jeffersonville, Indiana,
donor of notable Philippine ceramic collec-
tions; Dr. Robert L. Fleming, an American
educator stationed in India, who has given
the Museum important Asiatic zoological
collections. Mrs. Smith and Dr. Fleming
also serve in volunteer capacities on the
Museum staff as Associate and Field Asso-
ciate respectively; Mr. Hester, holder of
the Thomas J. Dee Fellowship, is working
on research in the Department of Anthro-
pology. The fourth addition to the Con-
tributor list is the late Arthur L. McElhose,
of Arlington Heights, Illinois, elected post-
humously in recognition of his gift of a
valuable collection of insects.

'Canada North' Film February 27

The third "screen-tour" in the current
series offered by the Illinois Audubon
Society will be presented Sunday afternoon,
February 27, at 2:30 o'clock in the James
Simpson Theatre of the Museum. "Canada
North," a film of the life of ptarmigans,
golden plover, elk, reindeer, and the great
white whale, will be shown. The accom-
panying lecture will be given by Bert
Harwell, who is well known to Audubon
audiences. The general public is invited,
and admission is free. Members of the
Illinois Audubon Society and Members of
the Museum are entitled to two reserved
seats on presentation of their membership
cards before 2:25 p.m.

February, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page S

WEB OF FANTASY AND FOLKLORE SURROUNDS MUSHROOMS

By jane ROCKWELL

MUSHROOMS were shrouded in mys-
tery and superstition long before
Pliny recorded Nero's fatal mushroom
poisoning of an entire assemblage of banquet
guests as well as the prefect of the guards
and a small host of tribunes and centurions.
Others who have fallen victim to poisonous
mushrooms include Pope Clement VII,
Emperor Jovian, Emperor Charles VI, Em-

Drawing by Margaret G. Bradbuiy

RING AROUND THE MUSHROOM

An interpretation of folk legends that describe the antics of elves and sprites as

they dance around the mysterious fairy^ring mushroom.

peror Claudius, the widow of Czar Alexis,
and Euripides' wife, two sons, and daughter,
not to mention thousands of persons not
recorded by name on the pages of history
since mushroom gatherers set out to dis-
tinguish between toxic and non-toxic deli-
cacies for their tables.

Among common fallacies that have grown
up in the long history of mushrooms is
that poisonous mushrooms or toadstools, as
they are thought to be, are responsible for
warts, lightning, and witchcraft. The
seemingly magic growth of mushrooms
has caused them to be associated with fairies,
elves, witches, and other things supernatural.
Puffballs were thought to be sown by elves,
the trembling fungi were described as
fairies, and witches' butter and the cup
fungi were called elfins' saddles or cups and
fairies' baths.

Contrary to the popular belief that all
mushrooms are non-poisonous and all toad-
stools poisonous, there are species that are
harmless and others that are deadly poison-
ous among both toadstools and mushrooms.
Actually most are edible, but toxic and non-
toxic plants may belong to the same group.
Consumption of poisonous mushrooms may
bring about acute indigestion or death.
Some individuals can eat fleshy fungi
without ill effect while others, eating the
same plant, may suffer violent reactions.
The average person who does not go in

search of mushrooms is quite safe because
the mushrooms he buys are cultivated on
mushroom farms.

VARIED COLORS

Formerly mushrooms were classed in
one genus, Agaricus, but after so many
different species were found to exist — more
than 2,000 — they were divided according
to whether their spores were white, pink,
yellowish, brown or
black. Different spe-
cies have scarlet, vio-
let, yellow, green,
orange, white, brown,
or gray caps. Their
texture may be leath-
ery, tough, brittle,
fleshy, or watery.
Some are tasteless;
others are bitter, pep-
pery, mealy, or have
a nutty flavor. Some
have repellent odors
while others have a
pleasant smell, like
ripe apricots or anise.
One genus, Lactarius,
has a milky juice that
may be white, orange,
or even blue in some
species. One species
may, when touched,
sting tender skin.
Many persons do not regard mushrooms
as plants, but they are even more disinclined
to consider them animals although fungi do
have the animal-like characteristic of re-
quiring ready-made or organic food since
they are unable to obtain sustenance from
earth, air, and water as ordinary green
plants do. Consequently they are forced
to live like scavengers on other plants or
animals, dead and alive. Members of the
flowerless division of plants, they are nearly
at the bottom of the ladder of plant evolu-
tion. Classed as higher fungi, their close
edible relations are the puffballs and morels
while their more distant relatives are rusts,
smuts, blights, mildews, and molds.

Most common of mushrooms, both culti-
vated and growing wild, is Agaricus cam-
pestris — the mushroom to the layman.
Found mostly in pastures and grassy places,
not in woods, its caps are usually white and
its gills pink, later changing to brown.
Most deadly are Amanita muscaria or fly
agaric and Amanita phalloides or death
angel. Poisonous mushrooms often make
up in numbers what they lack in volume of
separate species. Unwholesome mushrooms
produce bad effects quickly while the poison-
ous fungi take eight to fifteen hours to do
their lethal job.

Methods for testing poisonous mush-
rooms, still practiced in many places, have
been passed down through the ages. Mush-

rooms are said to be poisonous if a silver
spoon, coin or like object dipped into a dish
of cooked mushrooms turns black, if they
peel easily, are brightly colored, have an
undesirable odor or bitter taste. All these
so-called tests have been proved meaning-
less.

FAIRY LEGENDS

Fantasy and superstition always have sur-
rounded fairy rings formed by Marasmitts
oreades and other species. Because these
rings grow rapidly in circumference and are
often accompanied by rings of fresh grass
that highlight them and make them easily
discernible, sometimes from a great distance,
folk legends have evolved concerning fairies,
elves, and goblins who danced moonlight
rigadoons around the mysterious fungus-
haunted circles. Some rings attain a reputed
diameter of 200 feet or more and an esti-
mated age of more than 250 years. How-
ever, most rings rarely attain a diameter of
more than 20 feet.

A widespread belief among peasants in
Europe was that mushroom circles brought
luck to the household in whose fields they
were found. It was therefore most necessary
not to offend the fairies responsible for this
{Continued on page 7, column 2)

New Public Relations Aide
on Museum Staff

Miss Jane Rockwell has been appointed
Assistant in Public Relations on the Mu-
seum staff. Miss Rockwell is a graduate
(B.A.) of the Univer-
sity of Nebraska,
where she majored in
journalism and Eng-
lish; she also engaged
in post-graduate stud-
ies at New York Uni-
versity, where her
father. Dr. John G.
Rockwell, is a profes-
sor of psychology. Be-
fore coming to the
Museum she worked
for several years as a
reporter and feature
writer for the Lincoln (Nebraska) Star and
was news editor and columnist for the
Torrington (Wyoming) Telegram. She was
a member of the publicity staff of the J. C.
Penney Company, New York, and assistant
editor of that company's house organs. At
the Museum she will work in all phases of
newspaper, magazine, radio, and television
publicity, and in editing the Bulletin, in
association with H. B. Harte, Public Rela-
tions Counsel since 1927. She succeeds Mrs.
Alexander (Barbara) Polikoff, whose resig-
nation was announced in the January
Bulletin.

Jane Rockwell

'age i

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

February, 1955

BOOKISH BIRD-CENSUS:
A FIRESIDE GAME

"C

By AUSTIN L. RAND

CURATOR OF BIRDS

AN WE GET any index as to just
how bird-conscious people are?" I
thought as my wife and I sat talking in front
jf our magazine-laden coffee table one
3vening just after Christmas. Thus was born
the idea of a bookish Christmas bird-census.
To many a bird lover, the Christmas bird-
census is one of the important events of
Christmas time. The origin of the custom
goes back to 1900 and Frank M. Chapman,
who did as much as any one person to make
people bird-conscious. He proposed that

the traditional sport of a Christmas shoot
be replaced by a new game of making a list
of all the birds one could see on a single day
near Christmas — a Christmas bird-census.
The idea caught on. Now thousands of
people, from Alaska to Florida, take part
in making these lists that are published in
nature magazines, especially Audubon Maga-
zine, and often in local newspapers.

RIGID RULES SET UP

The census has become more than a game,
too, for with rigid and complicated rules it
has collected a bulk of information over
the years on which scientific papers have
been based. But casually or seriously done,
this modern census is easier on the birds
than was the old-time Christmas shoot, and
it has helped make people more bird-
conscious.

We ran our bookish census by going
through the issues of the current periodicals
on our coffee table and borrowing a couple
from our neighbors, who incidentally had
their living room papered in green enlivened
by male cardinals in brilliant red full
plumage. We made our own rules. No
nature or bird magazines to be used; only
illustrations of birds, identifiable to family
at least, to be used; and a score of one to
be given to one kind of bird used in one
connection — for example, three crows on a
branch would count as one, and two different
pictures of doves in the same article would
count as one; only domestic magazines to
be used.

In two hours we ran through 15 periodicals
as follows:

1 weekly paper 0 birds

2 daily papers 2 "

2 slick magazines 2 "

2 topical slicks 10 "

1 news magazine 1 "

2 popular science

and travel ... 8 "

1 state advertising 2 "

1 literary 2 "

4 comic books 0 "

16 periodicals '. . . . 27 birds

of 23 kinds

The systematic list is as follows:

Kind

Number of Birds

Ostrich

Penguin

Albatross

2
2

Fulmar

Cape pigeon
Frigate bird
Pelican

Flamingo
Goose

Condor

Eagle

Ruffed grouse
Mearns quail
Valley quail
California quail
Macaw

White-winged dove
Road-runner

Owl

Toucan

Cardinal

Jackdaw

Crow

23 kinds

27 birds

Not-acceptable records. An article on
modern design in silk-screen printing showed
some 35 items that were "birds," whose
characters might have been borrowed from
hens, lyre birds, owls, eagles, and night-
hawks, several being incorporated into the
same individual. Geese, turkeys, and do-
mestic fowl advertised as food were not
included.

Unfigured species. At first we thought
to skim the text for mention of birds but
soon found that it was impractical. Our
eyes wouldn't stand it. But we did hit on
a few; for example, a couple of travel articles
contained comments on birds that would
have greatly swelled the list.

However, a daily paper, otherwise bird-
less, contained three news items that should
be mentioned: a carrier pigeon, absent for
nine years, had turned up; singing caged
canaries had been installed in Tokyo police
headquarters to calm irate motorists ar-
rested for traffic violation; and seagulls had
been using United Nations headquarters as
a perch from which to open clams by drop-
ping them to the street below.

Foreign items. By excluding these a par-
ticularly rich niche was omitted, notably
the 38 species of birds mentioned in the
Bible portrayed in a two-page spread of
the Christmas number of the Illustrated
London News.

I was surprised that the list was so small.
I can remember so many news stories,
articles, and illustrations that I've seen.
But evidently they don't appear every day
and my memory has telescoped them, for
the above list is based on a true random
sample, selected without planning, though
undoubtedly we missed some birds. Of
course, the time of year is bad for birds,
with life at its lowest ebb. It is perhaps
typified by two "birdish" cartoons that I
couldn't include for obvious reasons: one
was a hunter in a duck blind with a duck
call, but not a duck in sight; another, a
political cartoon, showed, among other
things, a bird cage with open door and a
label "dove of peace," but not a bird
anywhere.

Noteworthy also is that few birds were
recorded more than once, only the ostrich,
penguin, eagle, and macaw, and these but
twice.

SOME 'STOCK CHARACTERS'

Only one of our familiar songbirds, the
cardinal, is on our list, and that is in an
advertisement for a bird book. In the list
there are very few bird names that would
not be familiar to the general reader of a
half century ago, and some are age-old
standbys, stock characters in literature:
ostrich (Bible), owl (Athena), penguin
(Penguin Island of Anatole France), alba-
tross (Ancient Mariner), pelican (heraldry),
flamingo (Alice in Wonderland), dove (of
peace), eagle (heraldry), and goose (guarding
Rome), for instance.

Comparing native birds with exotics we
find that 15 are natives of the United States
and 8 are exotic. The latter birds represent
tropical America, Europe, Africa, and
Antarctica.

Eleven of the 27 birds were used in adver-
tisements in such ways as a toucan inviting
you to "come to Caracas"; an owl asking,
"Do you know?"; photos of game-bird
models; and crow, macaw, eagle, penguin,
and a cardinal decorating ads with little
relevancy. A macaw, labeled "a sarong-
snatching parrot," was part of a night-club
entertainer's advertisement.

NON-COMMERCIAL ILLUSTRATIONS

Of the 16 birds not in advertisements,
one was in a reproduction of a Breughel
painting, six were in reproductions of old
illustrations prepared for Swiss Family
Robinson, eight were illustrations of travel
articles, and one sketch, illustrating the
alleged enormous appetite of an ostrich,
decorated an article on California culture.

With but a single census you can't make
comparisons. Perhaps, over the years,
further censuses by more people and with
wider coverage will enable us to chart trends
and show whether or not people are be-
coming more bird-conscious and if so, how
much.

February, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 5

INTERNATIONAL NATURE PHOTO EXHIBIT, FEBRUARY 1-28

JUDGING has been completed, and
hundreds ot persons in all parts of the
world are waiting to learn the winners of
the Tenth Chicago International Exhibition

TIMBER LINE
Entered in Plant'Life Division of Nature Photog-
raphy Exhibit by M. G. Smith, of Fresno, Calif.*

of Nature Photography, which will be held
from February 1 to 28 at the Museum.

Jointly sponsored by the Museum and
the Nature Camera Club of Chicago, the
show is the largest nature-photography con-
test and one of the largest photography

* Because this "Bulletin" went to press before the judges
announced their decisions, publication of photographs in this
issue does not indicate acceptance of the pictures for the exhibit.

MUSEUM FEATURED
IN COLLIER'S

One of the most striking and extensive
tributes ever paid by a national magazine
to the value of a museum is an article about
Chicago Natural History Museum that ap-
pears in the February 4 issue of Collier's
magazine. Included are six full pages of
unusually brilliant color-pictures of the
Museum's North American Indian exhibits.
The commentary, by Martha Weinman of
Collier's staff, emphasizes the fact that this
Museum has been a leader in the trend
away from stodgy old-fashioned storage-
type exhibition cases, overladen with mo-
notonous rows of objects, to the modern
technique of highly selective exhibits em-
bellished by modern concepts of the use of
color, lighting, and other artistic devices to
tell an integrated story with a few specimens.
The use of elaborate three-dimensional
lifelilte dioramas to produce in the visitor
an awareness of the main elements of a
culture is also stressed.

exhibits held anywhere. Approximately 200
prints and 800 color transparencies have
been selected for exhibition from over
3,800 entries. Amateur and professional
photographers from the United States,
Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Orient,
Africa, Australia, and New Zealand sub-
mitted a maximum of four prints and four
color slides in three classifications: animal
life, plant life, and general (which includes
scenery, geographical formations, clouds,
and other natural phenomena that do not
belong in the two specific biological sections) .

Medals and ribbons will be awarded in
all classifications of photographs and color
slides. Honorable-mention awards by the
Nature Camera Club will be given photo-
graphs in all classifications. Two special
color-transparency awards will be presented
by the Nature Division of the Photographic
Society of America for the best photographic
work using complementary colors and ad-
jacent colors. Names of the winners will
be placed on a bronze plaque contributed
by Mrs. Myrtle R. Walgreen, Camera
Club member.

The first nature-photography contest in
Chicago was held in 1943 when an exhibition
of prints was presented by the Museum.
In 1946 the Nature Camera Club suggested
that its membership and the Museum
jointly sponsor a contest that would include
both prints and color slides, and the exhi-
bition has been held every year since. The
Camera Club, which holds its program meet-
ings at the Museum on the second Tuesday
evening of each month, is made up of both
amateur and professional photographers.

Judges for the annual contest were May
Watts, Fred Richter, and Erik Sorensen,
Chicago photographers; M. Kenneth Starr,
Curator of Asiatic Archaeology and Eth-

HONEYBEES AND QUEEN CELL

Entered in Animal-Life Division by M. P. Ochotta,
of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.*

nology at the Museum; and Homer E.
Holdren, of the Museum's Division of
Photography. Prints will be on exhibition
in Stanley Field Hall, and color slides will
be projected on the screen of the Museum's
James Simpson Theatre at 3 P.M. on two
Sundays, February 13 and 20. A list of
prize winners and honorable mentions will
appear in the March Bulletin.

Copies of this issue of Collier's are
available at the Book Shop of the Museum.
The article is the second in a series on
leading museums of the United States.

STAFF ^OTES

Bryan Patterson, Curator of Fossil
Mammals, has returned to his desk at the
Museum from his assignment in Argentina
where, since September, under a Guggen-
heim Foundation fellowship, he has been
engaged in a paleontological research project

Dr. Karl P. Schmidt, Chief Curator

of Zoology, has been elected an Honorary
Fellow of the newly formed Indian Academy
of Zoology, with headquarters at Agra.
Recently he lectured on Peru at the Uni-
versity of Missouri and spoke before a
number of seminars .... Mrs. Mary Sue
Hopkins Coates, Secretary of the Depart-
ment of Geology, has resigned to take a
position as assistant to a consulting geolo-
gist in Chicago.

ATTENDANCE LAST YEAR
TOPPED MILLION MARK

The number of visitors received at the
Museum during 1954 totaled 1,142,200.
The attendance has remained over a million
annually since the mid-1920's. Of the 1954
visitors, 1,005,777 or close to 88 per cent
were admitted free (adults coming on
Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays when
admission is free, children on all days, and
special classes of visitors such as teachers,
members of the armed forces. Members of
the Museum, etc.) Only 136,423 paid the
25-cent admission fee charged on other days.

While an attendance of more than a
million persons a year is a gratifying re-
flection of the effectiveness of the Museum,
it does not tell the whole story. The
institution's influence actually reaches hun-
dreds of thousands of others every year
through the traveling exhibits, lecturers,
films, and slides it sends to the schools,
through publications of the Museum press,
and through newspapers, magazines, radio,
and television.

Pages

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

February, 1955

AN 'ANIMAL' SOMETIMES MAY BE A PLANT OR VICE VERSA

By EUGENE S. RICHARDSON. Jr.

CURATOR OF FOSSIL INVERTEBRATES

ii

YOU CANNOT sometimes always
tell ..." goes a bit of jargon heard
in circles that avoid over-academic English.
It often applies very appropriately to the

problem a biologist faces in determining
whether an organism should be classified as
an animal or a plant.

In Frederick J. V. Skiff Hall (Hall 37)
the exhibits of fossil invertebrates and
plants are arranged in two parallel sequences
on the north and south sides of the hall,
respectively. The fossils on the south side
are arranged in a time sequence, according
to the periods of geologic history in which
they flourished. On the north side of the
hall similar fossils are displayed in a bio-
logical sequence, starting with the simplest
forms and running through the various
major groups to the most complex creatures.
Following the fossil invertebrates come the
fossil plants, seemingly a completely dif-
ferent sort of life.

Yet, if we turn to the case showing the
simplest of the invertebrates and study
them a bit, we find that the distinction
between plants and animals is somewhat
obscure. Now, it's easy enough to be
certain that a cactus is a plant and a por-
cupine an animal, even though you may
regard this as a minor matter when you run
into either one in the dark. The cactus,
like a proper plant, stays in one place and
makes its food supply from sun, air, and
soil minerals, while the porcupine, in true
animal fashion, wanders about and eats
solid food.

The simplest invertebrates (Protozoa)
and the simplest plants (Protophyta) are
very much alike in that their tiny bodies,
microscopic in size, are not made of a num-
ber of cells, as are the bodies of the larger
plants and animals. They may be con-
sidered as single cells or as undivided bodies.

Many of them have both the plant charac-
teristic of manufacturing their own food
and the animal ability to move about and
capture solid food, so that there has been a
running argument for about three hundred
years as to just which kingdom they should
be put in. It was suggested as early as
1860 that they should be considered a
separate kingdom, and the name Protista
is now used in some circles to apply to
the group. Thus it seems that there are
four kingdoms instead of the traditional
three: Animal, Mineral, and Vegetable.

FIRST CALLED ANIMALCULES

The first man to see a living protistan
was Anton van Leeuwenhoek, the inventor
of the microscope.
Peering through his
new gadget in 1676,
he watched a com-
pany of "animal-
cules," as he called
them, disporting
themselves in a
drop of pond water.
Even though the
microscope had
never made them
visible, the protis-
tans would have
been important to
man, as they in-
clude germs of
many diseases and
the factors of rot-
ting and decay.
Other protistans produce visible effects
by sheer force of numbers, as indivi-
duals of Haematococcus pluvialis suddenly
multiplying in rainwater pools, coloring
them red and impelling witnesses to report
"rains of blood"; or Noctiluca scintillans,
floating in the ocean in countless millions,
the combined phosphorescence of many
small individuals making the water glow
where it is disturbed.

On the exhibit screen in Hall 37 are two
examples of the group Flagellata, or whip-
bearers, the Silicoflagellata and the Peri-

KEY TO ILLUSTRATIONS

Arc they plants, animals, or members of a
fourth kingdom distinct from the traditional
animal, vegetable, and mineral realms?
In the drawings on this page, Dr. Richardson
shows some of the kinds of fossil creatures
that present this problem. They are called,
in general, protistans, and the specific ones
shown are: (a) Radiolarian, with shell of silica;
(b) Tintinnid, with shell made of mineral
grains fastened to organic membrane of the
animal that is also shown; (c) Peridiniid, with
cellulose shell; (d and e) Foraminifera, with
limy shells.

diniids (or Dinoflagellata), which illustrate
well the confusion that may reign in at-
tempting to assign these simple living things
to either the plant or the animal kingdom.
They are free-moving, and can capture their
own food, which of course means that they
are perfectly good animals, but on the other
hand the Silicoflagellates have tests (shells)
made of silica, and the Peridiniids have
tests of cellulose, both of which are sub-
stances commonly found in plants. Further-
more, some of their very close relatives are
green and contain chlorophyll, the amazing
green pigment of plants, and can therefore
manufacture their own food from sunlight
and gas, as our friend the cactus does;
therefore, they must be plants. The solution
generally adopted is that the zoologists
claim that they are animals and the botahists
claim that they are plants, and both groups
of scientists study them and admire them
and covet them. This is much more satis-
factory than leaving them in a crack between

the two fields with no attention being paid
to them at all.

Protistans, then, form a perfectly good
biological unit that may be easily defined
according to the characters
shared by all its members —
that their bodies are not
composed of individual, dif-
ferentiated cells, but are
"acellular." With the Pro- /p

tista removed, the other two ( \ %i

kingdoms are now much
easier to define than they
used to be when they inter-
graded.

Since this convenient and
entirely logical acknowledg-
ment of the fourth kingdom
was first proposed about a
century ago, it is perhaps
rather surprising that it has
been ignored by most prac- p
ticing biologists in the mean-
time. In January of this
year, however, it was formally brought out
again, dusted off, and given very respectable
backing with the publication of the first
volume of the chapter "Protista" of the
new Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology,

February, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 7

sponsored by the Paleontological Society,
the Society of Economic Paleontologists
and Mineralogists, and the Geological So-
ciety of America in this country and the
Palaeontographical Society of Great Britain.
It remains to be seen of course, whether
the new kingdom will now be widely ac-
cepted, but it is at last off to a good start.
By whatever name they are called, the
protistans are a fascinating study. Small
though they are, they are far from simple,
and those forms that have tests and can be
preserved as fossils are objects of delicate
beauty under the microscope. The economic
importance of the Foraminifera, the most
illustrious of the protistans, has been men-
tioned in the Bulletin ("Fingerprint Clues
in the Quest for Oil," August, 1954).
Samples of Silicoflagellates, Peridiniids,
Foraminifera, Tintinnids, and Radiolarians
are shown in the exhibit in Skiff Hall, where
they are represented by plastic models, as
much as 1,000 times life-size, created by
Artist Joseph B. Krstolich, of the Depart-
ment of Zoology.

COLLECTION OF MOTHS
GIVEN TO MUSEUM

By RUPERT L. WENZEL

CURATOR OF INSECTS

During the past year the Museum re-
ceived a collection of North American
butterfles and moths as a gift from the
estate of the late Arthur L. McElhose. The
collection, which was accessioned recently,
contains approximately 12,000 specimens.
It is a particularly desirable acquisition
because it contains more than 700 species
of Microlepidoptera, of which only a few
were represented in the Museum's col-
lections.

The Microlepidoptera is a large and im-
portant group that consists of a number of
families of moths, with about 5,000 species in
North America. It includes many familiar
and economically important species, such as
the codling moth, the European corn borer,
the oriental fruit moth, the clothes moths,
and many leaf rollers and miners. One
species, the pink bollworm moth, is regarded
by some entomologists as a national menace
because it may be responsible for the loss
of as much as half the cotton crop in certain
areas in the southwestern United States,
which produce much of this highly im-
portant crop.

Most of the species of Microlepidoptera,
however, are of little or no economic im-
portance. Many are of interest because of
their unusual habits. Of these, the public
probably is best acquainted with Laspeyresia
sallitans, the Mexican jumping-bean moth,
whose larva lives principally within the seed
pod of a Mexican spurge, Sebastiana pringlei.
The larva causes the seed pod to jump by
throwing itself from one side to the other
within the pod.

McElhose owned and operated a bath
and massage studio in Arlington Heights,
Illinois. He was well known locally as an
amateur lepidopterist and served as secre-
tary of the Chicago Entomological Society
from 1940 to 1943. His collection included
the collection made by his brother, the late
Henry McElhose of Ilion, New York, an-
other enthusiastic and well-known amateur,
who was a charter member of the Entomo-
logical Society of America. These two men
exemplify the kind of amateurs who, even
though they publish little, make a valuable
contribution to their field of interest through
the careful amassing of well-documented
collections, that, after passing to a museum,
serve as a source of study material for future
investigators.

MUSHROOM FANTASY-

(Continued from page 3)

phenomenon. Young maidens made a prac-
tice of beautifying their skin by bathing in
the "fairy dew," and took great care not to
step within the rings lest the angered fairies-
send blemishes to plague them.

Shakespeare, in Midsummer Night's
Dream, comments on the country people's
belief that elves and fairies dance within
the rings at night, seating themselves on
the ring's dewy cupolas. Titania, while
quarreling with Oberon, tells of the rage of
the winds because the fairies no longer
dance and of the "contagious fogs" that
they "in revenge have sucked up from the
sea." One result of the spiteful flood, she
says, is that the "nine men's morris is fill'd
up with mud." Morris means the dance of
the nine men or gnomes who, after their
Puck-like expeditions of malice, were said
to dance with joy in the moonlight meadow
within the mushroom rings. A vestige of
that belief can be seen today in the convic-
tion of many gardeners that growth of the
mushroom is influenced by the changes of
the moon.

A visit to the Hall of Plant Life (Hall 29)
of the Museum will reveal a wealth of infor-
mation about these controversial and ex-
citing fleshy fungi.

As in early days in Europe, an itinerant
barber sometimes acts as a surgeon among
African natives. He relieves pain by bleed-
ing with a hollow horn. The wide end is
cupped over a cut on the site of pain, and
the operator sucks air from the horn and
plugs the hole at the tip with a pellet of wax,
applied by the tip of his tongue. Such horns
are shown as part of a barber's equipment in
Hall D.

Lectures Begin March S . . .

PROGRAMS ON SATURDAYS
FOR ADULTS, CHILDREN

The two annual spring series of Museum
programs — Saturday afternoons for adults
and Saturday mornings for children — will
begin on March 5 in the James Simpson
Theatre and continue throughout March
and April. The lectures on travel and
science for adults are at 2:30 p.m. The free
motion-pictures for children are at 10:30 a.m.

The story of "Brazil" in color-film on
March 5 will open the Saturday-afternoon
lectures, which are provided by the Edward
E. Ayer Lecture Foundation Fund. The
lecturer will be Eric Pavel, a native Bra-
zilian, who is film director for the Pan
American Press and Film of Sao Paulo. He
will show his films of Bahia, Rio de Janeiro,
and the Amazon jungle, one of the world's
least-known wildernesses. Included will be
underwater shots of tropical fishes and
marine plants, a fish-spearing expedition,
glimpses of the teeming animal-life of the
country's vast interior, visits to primitive
Indian tribes, and scenes at Iguassu, the
world's largest waterfalls. Pavel's films also
document Brazil's great industries — coffee,
sugar, and mining.

No tickets are necessary for admission to
this and the eight subsequent illustrated
lectures on Saturday afternoons in March
and April. A section of the James Simpson
Theatre where the programs are presented
is reserved for Members of the Museum,
each of whom is entitled to two reserved
seats. Requests for these seats should be
made in advance by telephone (WAbash
2-9410) or in writing. Seats will be held in
the Member's name until 2:25 o'clock on
the lecture day. Because of limited accom-
modations it is necessary to restrict ad-
mission to the Saturday-afternoon lectures
to adults.

"Drums for a Holiday," a dramatic and
colorful film of the forest people of Africa's
west coast, will be the opening attraction
on March 5 of the Saturday-morning enter-
tainments for children, which are presented
by the James Nelson and Anna Louise
Raymond Foundation. The film shows the
life of the Ashanti tribes on the Gold Coast
and the growing, harvesting, and shipping
of coconuts.

Complete schedules of the programs for
both adults and children will appear in the
March issue of the Bulletin.

A "family tree" of mammals, including
man, illustrating the manifold inter-rela-
tionships, is on exhibition in George M.
Pullman Hall (Hall 13).

The faculties and students of all educa-
tional institutions are offered full use of the
facilities of the Museum. Many schools at
all levels — grade schools, high schools,
colleges, and universities — have regular or-
ganized programs in which the Museum is
recognized as a prime source of information.

Page 8

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

February, 1955

Books

(All books reviewed in the BULLETIN are
available in The Book Shop of the Museum.
Mail orders accompanied by remittance in-
cluding postage are promptly filled.)

BIRDS THE WORLD OVER. By Austin
L. Rand and Emmet R. Blake. Chicago
Natural History Museum Press. 96
pages, 51 illustrations. Price $1.50.

Birds the World Over is a once-over of
the birds exhibited in the Museum's Hall of
Habitat Groups of Birds (Hall 20). It is
designed as a guide to the hall, but it was
written also in the hope that the visitor
might leave the Museum with a memento
that would enable him to study and enjoy
some of the most remarkable landscapes of
the world with their bird inhabitants long
after his visit to them in the Museum.

As the authors have emphasized, our
exhibition of birds in habitat groups provides
a schematic introduction to the geography
of birds and to their ecology as well. All of
the principal regions of the animal geog-
rapher are represented, and when the re-
maining spaces in the hall are filled, the
representation of bird habitats will be a
most satisfactory achievement in the mu-
seum techniques of visual education.

One might wish that some of the stories
that lie behind so many of the groups had
been incorporated into the text. The
authors write of the Montezuma oropendula:
"All of the nests were suspended in a small
area at the very top of a towering tree that
measured almost seven feet in diameter at
the base and was well over 100 feet high."
There is no clue as to how the nests were
obtained. It happens that I can relate how
those nests were collected. Blake and I got
up before 3 o'clock in the morning to take
advantage of the coolness of the dawn. We
reached the tree just at 3 with our lanterns
and took turns chopping with the four-
pound double-bitted ax brought from Wis-
consin for the purpose. One of us chopped
until he was out of breath, and then rested
while the other chopped. By the good
fortune that the wood was soft, the tree
crashed to the ground at 9 o'clock. We had
been sad in thinking of the destruction of a
whole nesting colony of the big raucous
birds as a sacrifice, if not to science, to
visual education. Our relief was intense to
find so few of the nests occupied with eggs
or young that we obtained just enough
specimens, in all, for the group as it had
been planned and for the study collections.

The study of birds is so popular and has
called forth such an ample literature that
this field has become one of the best of all
avenues through which the amateur can
enter the field of natural history. It is

perhaps not sufficiently realized that the
Museum's three-dimensional exhibits and
"real" mounted birds form a unique supple-
ment to the literature. The Museum's
collections of birdskins for study provide
one of the cornerstones for the continuing
additions to the literature about birds; the
Museum's exhibition halls form the antidote
against too great dependence on books.
Here the visitor can supplement, even on
the most inclement day, that other antidote
to bookishness — study of wild-life in the
field.

Karl P. Schmidt
Chief Curator of Zoology

Technical Publications

The following technical publications were
issued recently by Chicago Natural History
Museum:

Fieldiana: Geology, Vol. 10, No. 19. Fauna
of the Vale and Choza, 9; Captorhino-
Tnorpha. By Everett Claire Olson. July
29, 1954. 8 pages. 15c.

Fieldiana: Zoology, Vol. 35, No. 3. Check
List of North American Water-Mites. By
Rodger D. Mitchell. August 31, 1954.
44 pages. 75c.

NEW MEMBERS

(December 16 to January 14)

Associate Members

Robert T. Drake, Louis G. Glick, Dr.
Felix Jansey, Maurice B. Mitchell, Peter J.
Spiegel, W. J. Williams

Sustaining Members

Patrick H. Hume, Mrs. Edward P. Lay,
John Alden Morgan

Annual Members

Carlyle E. Anderson, A. W. Bemsohn,
Carl A. Bick, Dr. Eugene Bodmer, Mrs.
Robert T. Borcherdt, Joseph Broska,
Charles F. Cutter, Rev. Walter L. Fas-
nacht, Robert S. Faurot, Norman W.
Forgue, Edward E. Gardner III, Herbert
Geist, John P. Gormley, Miss Janet Haag,
Frederick J. Haake, Mrs. George Hanson,
Joseph L. Hassmer, David A. Hill, Fred K.
Hoehler, Arthur L. Hossack, Pat Hoy,
Norman H. Johnstone, Daniel Karlin, Miss
Ola M. Kemp, Henry Kenny, Samuel C.
Kincheloe, Robert H. King, Elmer W.
Kneip, John S. Knight, C. A. Knuepfer,
Edgar E. Koretz, Carl A. Kroch, William
O. Kurtz, Jr., Leslie S. Larson, David L.
Leeds, Miss Edna V. Liljedahl, Howard
Linn, Jerrold Loebl, Harold Love, V. Reges
Lynch, Roger McCormick, J. Dunlap
McDevitt, Dr. Emerson K. McVey, Horace
J. Mellum, J. Alfred Moran, K. P. Morgan,
Robert C. Munnecke, William F. Naylor,
Jr., Albert E. Neely, Gordon K. Palais,
William J. Payes, Jr., Sherwood K. Piatt,
J. H. Price, Mrs. John A. Renn, George L.
Rutherford, James S. Saleson, Dr. Louis
Scheman, Dr. Edward L. Schrey, Bernard
Snyder, John Stewart, James H. Stiggleman,
George Van Gerpen, William F. Walthouse,
Winfield C. Warman, Vernon M. Welsh

"Highlights Tours" Oficred Daily

Free guide-lecture tours are offered
daily except Sundays under the title
"Highlights of the Exhibits." These tours
are designed to give a general idea of the
entire Museum and its scope of activities.
They begin at 2 p.m. on Monday through
Friday and at 2:30 P.M. on Saturday.

Special tours on subjects within the range
of the Museum exhibits are available Mon-
days through Fridays by advance request.

Although there are no tours on Sundays,
the Museum is open from 9 A.M. to 4 P.M.

GIFTS TO THE MUSEUM

Following is a list of the principal gifts
received during the past month:

Department of Botany:

From: Holly R. Bennett, Chicago— 818
phanerogams; Dr. Chester S. Nielsen, Talla-
hassee, Fla. — 132 algae; Dr. Camillo Sbar-
baro, Spotorno (Savona), Italy — 100 cryp-
togams, Italy; Dr. John W. Thieret, Chicago
— 202 wood specimens, 12 herbarium speci-
mens, Illinois, Indiana, and Cuba

Department of Zoology:

From: Chicago Zoological Society, Brook-
field, 111. — birdskin, 2 bird skeletons; Robert
J. Drake, El Cajon, Calif. — 3 lots of Mexican
land-shells, California and Mexico; Arthur
M. Greenhall, Trinidad, B.W.I.— 24 bats;
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.
— collection of shells, western Pacific Ocean;
Sidney Dealey Morris, Highland Park, 111.
— birdskin; Museum and Art Gallery,
Durban, Natal, South Africa — 8 birdskins;
Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet, Stockholm,
Sweden — collection of land-shells, Chile and
Peru; Dr. George K. Reid, Jr., College
Station, Tex. — 7 fishes; Dr. Jeanne S.
Schwengel, Scarsdale, N. Y. — collection of
snail shells; Dr. Charles H. Seevers, Home-
wood, III. — 22 Staphylinid beetles. United
States and neotropics; Dr. Harald Sioli,
Belem, Brazil — collection of inland shells.
Lower Amazon basin; Dr. Henry Field,
Coconut Grove, Fla. — collection of marine
shells, Dubai, Persian Gulf; Mr. and Mrs.
Richard B. Hoger, Westmont, 111. — 14 shore
birds, Lake Calumet; Harry Hoogstraal,
Cairo, Egypt, 110 fleas, 9 mite paratypes, 70
birds, Egypt, Turkey, and Yemen;
Lederle Laboratories, New York — fruit bat,
Honduras; Northwestern University Dental
School, Chicago — 15 dog skulls, 12 cat skulls,
2 sets of elephant teeth, 17 reptile skulls, 3
amphibian skulls; Dr. Charles D. Radford,
Manchester, England — 16 slides of parasitic
mites; Prof. Hans Stiibel, Erlangen, Ger-
many— Uraniid moth, Madagascar; Lt. Col.
Robert Traub, Washington, D.C. — 3 slides
of chigger mites, 30 fleas on slides. North
Borneo, United States, Mexico, and Peru

Motion Picture Division:

From: American Airlines, Inc., New York
• — film "Flight over the Arctic"

The North American woods of most im-
portance economically are exhibited in
Charles F. Millspaugh Hall (Hall 26).

PRINTED BY CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PRESS

_ fiULLEtlN

■^ ^^ Vol.-26.No.3-March-1955

Chicago Namiral ^
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Page 2

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

March. 1955

Chicago Natural History Museum

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893

Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago 5

Telephone: WAbash 2-9410

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lester Aruour Henry P. Isham

Sewell L. Avery Hughston M. McBain

Wm. McCoruick Blair William H. Mitchell

Walther Buchen John T. Pirie, Jr.

Walter J. Cuumings Clarence B. Randall

Joseph N. Field George A. Richardson

Marshall Field John G. Searle

Marshall Field, Jr. Solomon A. Smith

Stanley Field Louis Ware

Samuel Insull, Jr. John P. Wilson

OFFICERS

Stanley Field President

Marshall Field First Vice-President

Hughston M. McBain Second Vice-President

Joseph N. Field Third Vice-President

Solomon A. Smith Treasurer

Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary

John R. Millar Assistant Secretary

THE BULLETIN

EDITOR
Clifford C. Gregg Director of the Museum

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology

Theodor Just Chief Curator of Botany

Sharat K. Roy Chief Curator of Geology

Karl P. Schmidt Chief Curator of Zoology

MANAGING EDITOR
H. B. Harte Public Relations Counsel

ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Helen A. MacMinn Jane Rockwell

Members are requested to inform the Museum
promptly of changes of address.

PHRAGMOSIS: ANIMALS
WITH BUILT-IN DOORS

By KARL P. SCHMIDT
chief curator of zoology

IT IS A FEATURE of scientific literature
that every branch of science tends to
develop sets of special terms, and these may
form a considerable barrier to the student
who is trying to begin studies in some field
and finds that he must rapidly acquire a
whole new vocabulary. Coining new words
or giving special meanings to old ones was
so popular during the rise of the biological
subscience, ecology, that it became a real
drag on its development, as a glance at the
300-odd pages of Carpenter's Ecological
Glossary of 1938 will demonstrate. Coining
terms for ecological phenomena and prin-
ciples has continued, including both the
useful and the unnecessary tyj>es.

Carpenter's Glossary is focused primarily
on the terminology of the earlier phases of
ecology, mainly botanical. The necessary
inclusion of the interaction of plants and
animals leads to a further essential expansion
of ecological terms. I have chosen one of
the less known, phragmosis, for illustration
of a relatively unknown word that has
proved its usefulness and that covers a
phenomenon of somewhat extraordinary
nature, namely the adaptation by evolution
of either the head or rear of an animal body
as a device for closing the opening of a

burrow in which it lives, or for merely closing
the burrow behind the animal.

SIGNAL TO THE GUARD

Such closure of the opening of a burrow
by an animal head is especially noteworthy
in insects. In many species of ants the head
of the soldier caste has been developed to
close the openings of ant-burrows in wood.
One of the most familiar examples is that of
a common species of ant in Texas that lives
in oak galls. In this species, the head of the
soldier is sharply truncate and flat on its
forward surface, and the openings into the
gall are made so that the soldier's flat, round
shields fit them exactly. The worker that
desires exit must tap the soldier from behind
with her antennae, whereupon he stands
aside and lets her pass through. The entering
worker palps the shield, and the living door
opens and lets her in. Similar effective

C.\RR1LS Hi UL KROW DOOR

Pichiciego. smallest of all armadillos, has a vertical

shield at the rear of its body that closes the path

behind as it digs its way into the ground.

hole-closing devices are to be found in the
heads of many species of ants, of wood-
boring beetles and of termite soldiers. In
spiders there are a number of forms with
truncate abdomens, so that the vertical earth-
burrow is effectively closed when the spider
comes to rest, head-downward, in it.

Vertebrates, with their larger size-range,
have given rise to a surprisingly large num-
ber of examples of hole closure by the body
or parts of the body. Frogs that live in
rock crevices or in knotholes in trees tend
to close the hole by bending the neck so
that the top of the head is at right angles to
the axis of the body. When the head attains
the level of a perfected hole-closing struc-
ture, as in various genera of frogs from
Yucatan and West Mexico to Brazil, the
skin of the head is found to have become
bony, with sharp ridges and points. A small
toad in Cuba lives in vertical burrows in
the soil and closes the opening with its bony
head. A group of burrowing snakes in
southern India is referred to as shield-tailed,
and it is suspected that the very large bony
shield in which the tail ends, serves to close
the burrow as the snake moves along. The
end of the tail of one of the shield-tailed
snakes even is the same diameter as its
body and is sharply truncate.

Even more surprising, until related to the
general phenomenon of phragmosis, are the

■THIS MONTH'S COVBR-

Sites of archaeological interest
will be covered in Dr. Alfred M.
Bailey's films and lecture, "Ari-
zona Through the Seasons," to
be presented March 19 as the third
program in the Museum's Spring
Course of illustrated lectures on
science and travel. Our cover
shows a view of the Museum's
own miniature diorama of one of
the most important sites — the
Mummy-Cave Village, a cliff-
dwelling in Canyon del Muerto.
The cave was occupied sporadi-
cally by Indians from about a.d.
350 to 1300, because it offered good
shelter and was easily defended
against enemies. Household ob-
jects and human burials or
"mummies" have been well pre-
served in the cave because of its
dryness. Drought and a military
defeat drove the last inhabitants
southwards from the cave, and
they are believed to have joined
their cousins, the Hopis.

structures of the small armadillo, the pichi-
ciego of western Argentina.

The little pichiciego, the smallest of all
armadillos, is less than six inches long from
nose to tail-shield. It is a burrower, more
extremely so even than the rest of the arma-
dillo group, and has correspondingly reduced
eyes, enlarged front claws, and, surprisingly
in an armadillo, a thick coat of silky hair
beneath its bony shield. Even more as-
tonishing is the fact that it has a separate
vertical shield at the rear end of its body,
from which its ridiculous little tail projects,
and that this rear shield is enlarged to the
diameter of its body. The burrow of the
pichiciego is closed at the rear at all times.

Phragmoiic seems a formidable term to
apply to a little creature so charming, but
its scientific name Chlamydophorus truncatus
is even longer. This means the "truncated
mantle-bearer," the mantle referring to the*
body shield; Iruncaliis, referring to the
sharply vertical rear end, is thoroughly
descriptive.

A mounted pichiciego (its common name
means little blind armadillo) has long stood
on my work table as a prized personal desk
ornament. A French naturalist in Paris
had offered it to the Museum, which had
better specimens and so did not purchase
it. As my colleague needed money more
than armadillos, I purchased it from him
myself in what was certainly a mutually
advantageous bargain. My pichiciego serves
to remind me of those extremes of adjust-
ment that often illuminate the less-evident
stages of the great process of orderly evolu-
tion in relation to habits and environment.

March, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page S

ESKIMOS ACHIEVE A LIVELY ART IN FACE OF HANDICAPS

By jane ROCKWELL

IN THE TUNDRA and along the rugged
coast of the Canadian Arctic where
materials and cultural advantages as we
know them are sparse, a lively contemporary
art exists among the Eskimos. Their crea-
tions have been judged unique and meaning-
ful wherever they have been exhibited.

A special exhibit of 60 pieces of sculpture
by the Eskimos of northern Canada will be
shown at the Museum March 4 to 28 in
co-operation with the Depart-
ment of Northern Affairs and
National Resources of Canada.
Accompanying the sculpture will
be black-and-white photographs
both of pieces of art not included
in the exhibit and scenes of the
country where the art was cre-
ated.

Unfamiliar with such modern
sculptor's tools as mallet and
chisel, calipers and dividers, the
Eskimo must rely on tools used in
everyday life to fashion his works
of art. Today steel tools fitted in
handles of bone, antler, or ivory
have replaced the flint-like stones
and slate used in the past, and modern
tools are used whenever possible.

The limited materials available caused
the Canadian Eskimos to turn to stones
and ivory for their art media, and the semi-
nomadic character of their people necessi-
tated fashioning only small pieces of sculp-
ture since tribes could not be burdened with
large, heavy pieces during their frequent
moves from place to place. The transitory
nature of their culture also developed in its
people a keen sense of observation in which
essential detail and mastery of form and
motion are stressed.

RESEMBLES MODERN ART

Eskimo art, identifiable as primitive, bears
a striking resemblance to modern art forms
in its simplicity of design and emphasis on
only the essential characteristics of the sub-
ject. While simplicity of design in modern
art usually is a product of an intellectual
choice, simplicity in this primitive art is
conditioned by the limitations of Eskimo
culture. The carver is intimately ac-
quainted with the subjects he portrays —
the hunter stalking the polar bear, the owl
guarding its nest, the mother holding her
child — the everyday incidents which make
up his basic cultural pattern. His conception
of the universe causes him to attribute to
things, living or dead, the emotions and
even the speech of human beings. In his
art, as in his conversations with companions,
the Eskimo brings to light his human-like
interpretation of animals and objects.

Small carvings found in ancient Eskimo
villages are known to have had magical sig-
nificance to their inhabitants — which is in

keeping with the primitive concept that
making a likeness of anything helps to
materialize it. Primitive man, since early
times, has painted, drawn, or modeled
images of the animals on which he and his
tribesmen depend for food. Carvings —
replicas of such possessions of deceased
persons as sleds, kayaks, or harpoons — have
been placed on Eskimo graves because the
originals were too valuable to be lavished
on the dead. Whether this custom is a

RIFLEMAN
'*Modcrnistic" conception in stone by an Eskimo sculptor

remnant of a now-forgotten Asiatic culture
or merely pure love of craftsmanship, the
art of the Eskimo is unpretentious and
without any trace of self-consciousness.
Even after a century of exposure to Euro-
pean culture, Eskimo art remains original,
creative, and virile.

Eskimo art is not limited to sculpture
alone. Few women are interested in carving
as an art form, but they are responsible for
highly original designs on clothing, baskets
and the artistic skin pictures which are
stitched on bags and other articles. Like

the men, women rely completely on memory
of form and visualize their design in its
entirety before making their sealskin cutouts
and superimposing them on a white back-
ground. Quality and design in clothing are
yardsticks for establishing respect among
the Eskimos themselves, so the women do
not take their craft lightly.

Eskimo custom forbids any show of pride
on the part of the artist and dictates that
the individual should malign his own work
as useless and unworthy to be
attempted again. Consequently,
it is impossible to find any two
pieces of Eskimo art alike in
form, movement, or concept.
Another curious convention pro-
vides that when a swimming ani-
mal is depicted, only the part
visible above the water is shown.
Carvings are cut off by means of
a horizontal plane representing
the surface of the water.

Carvings, decoration of skins,
drawings on antlers and horns —
all are art forms most familiar to
the outside world. Singing,
dancing, the poetry of the Es-
kimo legend or song, although they are
equally a part of the culture, are less known
since they can be translated only with great
difficulty in an alien land with an alien
tongue. As for the objectives of the Eskimo
artist, there is no written record accompany-
ing his work and the artist seldom gives ut-
terance to abstract thought. We do know
that his art is a personal thing, not created
for commercial ends. Forced to spend much
of his time in his home because of the severe
climate, the Eskimo must provide his own
amusement. An individualist who has never
allowed himself time for warfare, the indu.s-
trious Eskimo in his idle hours has ample
time to contemplate and perfect his art.

The Museum has a permanent exhibit,
entitled Ethnology of Eskimos of Alaska,
Canada, Siberia, and Greenland, in Joseph
Nash Field Hall (Hall 10).

LITTLE MISS OF THE NORTH
An Eskimo artist's creation in stone

11,500 Girl Scouts Aided

In slightly more than two years, more
than 11,500 Girl Scouts of Chicago and
vicinity have participated in special pro-
grams arranged by the Museum to assist
them in the accomplishment of their various
objectives, with special emphasis on helping
them to qualify for proficiency in nature
study. The period ran from October, 1952
through November, 1954. In all, more than
sixty programs were conducted. Further
programs of the kind, operated as before
through the co-operation of the staff of the
James Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond
Foundation, began in February. The ses-
sions, which will continue in March and
April, are held on Saturday mornings.

Page It

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

March, 1955

BIRD NAMES FOR HOTELS

By AUSTIN L. RAND

CURATOR OF BIRDS

IN A CURIOUS ARTICLE, entitled "The
Ornithology of Inn Signs," Dr. W. B.
Alexander* discusses the names of birds ap-
plied to hotels and inns in England. He
has a list of over 1,000 establishments with
such names, but there are far less than
1,000 different birds involved. The swan,
for instance, has lent its name to nearly 400
establishments. When there are more than
one of these hostelries in a town they are
sometimes differentiated, as in Bedford
where there is a Swan-by-the-River, and a
Swan-hy-the-Station, and in York there is a
Swan, a White Swan, an Old While Swan, a
Black Swan, and a Cygnet. The total list
numbers about 65 different birds, starting
with the most frequent Swan, Cock, and
Eagle, and running through such names as
Magpie, Partridge, Pelican, Parrot, Lark, and
Rook, to Yutick (Winechai), the least used.

When Dr. Alexander's pamphlet came to
my desk I naturally thought, "How about
in America?" I've traveled considerably in
this country, but bird names are few in my
memory. There's a Pelican Cottage in
Florida, and a Kingfisher Cottage, too,
among motels; in Greencastle, Indiana,
there's a Fluttering Duck; near Chicago I
know of a Blue Bird Inn, a Cardinal Motel,
and somewhere there's a Flamingo Motor
Court. Near Madison there's a place called
the Peacock. Blackhawk is used commonly
in the Illinois-Wisconsin area but comes
from the bird only second-hand, by way of
the Indian chieftain after whom the Black-
hawk Wars were named.

A Turkey Inn and a place labeled
Chicken Dinner I hesitated to include. They
have an air of impermanency and when next
I pass I wouldn't be surprised to see them
flaunting such slogans as Flounder Inn, Irish
Stew, Cold Plate Inn, or Giant Cheeseburger

TWO IN CHICAGO

I thought that perhaps my memory was
faulty so I turned to the Chicago classified
telephone directory. In the whole of Chi-
cago there were only two hotels with names
of birds. These were a Sheldrake (I did not
count the Drake, always having associated
this hotel, at the entrance to the Gold
Coast, with Sir Francis rather than with a
male duck, until on inquiry I found it is
actually named after a Chicago family), and
a Flamingo-on-lhe-Lake (evidently there
should be another Flamingo, by the station
or back of the yards, but it didn't appear.

I thought: perhaps only rural England
has such rustic names as those of birds for
their hotels — urban areas might be different;
how would London compare with Chicago?
Then I had a piece of luck. Miss Ruth
Johnson, who draws the cartoons for this

series and who has just become Mrs. William
Andris, was making a trip to Europe to
celebrate the event. She said she'd be in
London and would investigate.

While in London she looked up the hotel,
inn, and tavern names in the telephone
directory. She brought back a list of about
190 such institutions in London named after
birds. As one would guess, the swan headed

* Dr. .-Mexander is associated with the Edward Grey
Institute of Field Ornithology, Oxford, England.

the list. It had given, its name to 79 hos-
telries, including the Swan, Ye Swan, White
Swan, Old Swan, Old White Swan, Ye Olde
White Swan, Swan with Two Necks, Black
Swan, etc. The prevalence of the name swan.
Dr. Alexander suggests, may be correlated
with a number of things: for waterside inns
it may refer to the presence of the birds
themselves; there is a labored implication,
said to have been stated on a Dutch sign-
board, that swan is a popular name for an
alehouse because the bird is so fond of
liquid; it may be heraldic in origin, the
whiteness of the swan having been a symbol
of purity and of knighthood and once a
badge of nobles and royalty; or perhaps it
was favored because the outline of a swan,
painted on an inn sign, was so easily recog-
nized, a matter of more importance in an
earlier day when few could read.

Eagle used in one form or another for 33
inns probably also correlates with heraldry
(except for two Eagle and Child, evidently
tied in with the old belief that eagles carry
away children), and cock (29 times, with
Hen appearing only once, and then as Hen
and Chickens) were the next most common.
Then through such names as penguin (which
is an addition to Alexander's list), nightin-
gale, raven, magpie, pigeon, parrot and owl
to total 18 birds that have thus lent their
names. There were birds in three's a num-
ber of times: Three Magpies, Three Cranes,
Three Pigeons which could be related to
heraldry, but there were also two Two
Eagles, and one Four Swans.

The Pelican perhaps is based on the medi-

aeval association of the bird with Christian
piety, and as a badge the bird was then
shown with its nest and young. This, it is
said, is the origin of the Hen and Chickens,
rather than the domestic fowl that supplied
the common Cock. One wonders about the
Peahen; perhaps it's a ladies' hotel, though
various "Peacock Alleys" I've known were
recognized as places in which ladies dis-
played their finery. The Bird in Hand
probably refers to falconry and not the
proverb, judging by other pictured inn signs;
the Dog and Partridge (another addition to
Alexander's list) evidently is a resort of
sportsmen, and the Fox and Geese perhaps
refers to a game of that name played there.

Chicago has two inns named after birds.
London has 190. Evidently a difference
exists. There is geographical variation in
the use of bird names for hotels and inns.
But this is also true in England, where
Alexander found bird names common only
in the Anglo-Saxon areas, not in the Celtic
areas.

Not only bird names are scarce, in my
experience, in America, but there are also
few hotels named after mammals: there are
few, if any, bears, bulls, cats, cows, horses,
etc. such as are common in England.

But in my cursory investigation I find
plant names, especially tree names, very
common: birches, maples, elms, oaks, pines,
and spruces, in various numbers.

Spring Visiting Hours Begin

Visiting hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. will
go into effect at the Mu.seum from March 1
through April 30, an extension of one hour
beyond the 4 o'clock closing time observed
during the winter months.

Technical Publications

The following technical publications were
issued recently by Chicago Natural History
Museum:

Fieldiana: Botany, Vol. 29, No. 1. Revision
of the Genus Cheirodendron Nutt. Ex Seem,
for the Hawaiian Islands. By Earl Ed-
ward Sherff. November 11, 1954. 45
pages. 75c.

Fieldiana: Anthropology, Vol. 44, No. 1.
Proto-Lima, a Middle Period Culture of
Peru. By A. L. Kroeber. Appendix:
Cloths. By Dwight T. Wallace. De-
cember 15, 1954. 157 pages, 94 illustra-
tions. $4.

Fieldiana: Zoology, Vol. 34, No. 28. Some
Mites of Yemen, Collected by the Medical
Mission of the United States Naval
Medical Research Unit No. 3. By Charles
D. Radford. December 23, 1954. 19
pages, 13 illustrations. 45c.

Fieldiana: Zoology, Vol. 34, No. 29. A New
Larval Mite from Eritrea (Acarina: Trom-
biculidale). By Charles D. Radford.
December 23, 1954. 4 pages, 4 illustra-
tions. 10c.

March, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 5

Books

{All books reviewed in the Bulletin are
available in The Book Shop of the Museum.
Mail orders accompanied by remittance in-
cluding postage are promptly filled.)

MARLIN PERKINS' ZOOPARADE. By

Marlin Perkins. Rand McNally and
Company. 96 pages, illustrated. $2.95.

It is not often that the advance publicity
for a book begins many years before it is
written, but that is certainly the case with
Marlin Perkins' Zooparade. His success
with a television program under that name
has given Mr. Perkins a nation-wide repu-
tation, and it is fortunate that his host of
listeners can now extend their acquaintance
with him. He may not realize how much of
himself is projected over the television net-
work or how much his personality, infused
by his sympathetic love of animals, is re-
flected in the pages of his book.

The colored illustrations of Zooparade, by
the well-known American animal-artist Paul
Branson, are pleasing and appropriate. The
marginal drawings in black and white are a
feature of the book, performing the double
function of decoration and illustration of
the text. The young Chicago artist,
Seymour Fleishman, is to be congratulated
for his life-like drawings. Maps show the
distribution of notable types of animals.

As an animal book for children, Zooparade
can stand on its own merits, whether one
has seen the famous television program or
not. It is not only a pleasing book for
children to read, but it is one that parents
can read to children with pleasure.

Karl P. Schmidt
Chief Curator of Zoology

STAFF NOTES

Colonel Clifford C. Gregg, Director,
was principal speaker at the annual meeting
of the Cincinnati Museum of Natural
History, held January 28. His topic was
"The Place of the Museum in Its Com-
munity." . . . Dr. B. E. Dahlgren, Curator
Emeritus of Botany, has left for Cuba to
continue research on palms in which he has
been engaged for years .... Dr. Theodor
Just, Chief Curator of Botany, has been
appointed a member of the Committee on
Systematic Biology of the National Science
Foundation, Washington, D.C. . . . Loren
P. Woods, Curator of Fishes, who left on
an expedition to Mexico toward the close
of 1954, has proceeded from his first ba.se
at Salina Cruz on the Pacific side of the
Isthmus of Tehuantepec, to a second center
at Acapulco. He reports successful col-
lecting in tide-pools in that Pacific coast
area. The collections made at Salina Cruz

have already been received at the Museum
.... Dr. Donald Collier, Curator of South
American Archaeology and Ethnology, re-
cently conducted a seminar on "Research
in Archaeology" at the University of Chi-
cago . . . Dr. John B. Rinaldo, Assistant
Curator of Archaeology, was consultant on
archaeology for the "Career Day" recently
held for students at Lyons Township High
School .... Miss Phyllis M. Brady has
been appointed Secretary of the Department
of Geology. She attended Culver-Stockton
College, Northwestern University, and the
latter's Gregg College for Secretaries. She
was formerly employed in a Chicago adver-
tising firm.

NEW MEMBERS

(January 17 to February 14)

Contributors

Dr. Robert L. Fleming, Evett D. Hester,
Arthur L. McElhose*, Ellen Thome Smith

Associate Members

Guy T. Avery, John R. Doolittle, Harold
Meidell, George B. Whitfield

Annual Members

Mrs. Cecil Barnes, V. R. Belden, Dr.
George W. Birch, Robert Blumenfeld,
Milton M. Blumenthal, Robert E. Bodman,
Sidney L. Boyar, William N. Brock, Robert
Livingston Childs, Mrs. Ross Coles, Lynn
C . Farber, Joseph F. Fasano, William E.
Fisher, W. J. Foell, John Jay Fox, Jr., John
J. Gearen, W. P. Gilbert, Frank B. Gilmer,
David Bruce Glade, Norman Glickman,
Robert V. Gottschall, John L. Hall, Robert
I. Harwood, Dr. V. O. Hasek, Frederick
Charles Hecht, Mrs. Marion Hilker, Dr.
A. A. Hilkevitch, Dr. Benjamin H. Hilke-
vitch, Charles W. Hill, Dormand S. Hill,
Clarence W. Hines, Joseph Humm, John S.
Hutchins, George R. Jones, Otto Kerner,
Robert A. Kroeschell, Mrs. Roy Kroeschell,

F. H. Kullman, Jr., George H. Kurtz,
Seymour J. Kurtz, Montgomery Le Goff,
Al Lerner, William Bross Lloyd, Jr., Dr.
J. S. Love, Jr., Dr. Samuel S. Lyon, Dr. S.
Allen Mackler, Fred J. Mangier, Charles V.
Martin, V. F. Mashek, Jr., Joseph A.
Matter, Fred W. MeCloska, Mrs. Walker

G. McLaury, George Merker, David C.
Mervis, Carl A. Metz, Lloyd D. Miller,
Frank W. Moran, C. Robert O'Boyle,
George W. Overton, Jr., Stewart T. Peck,
Thomas C. Quackenboss, Dr. John M.
Reichert, J. Stuart Rotchford, Joseph A.
Roseman, Jr., Dean Rotenberry, Dr.
Ricardo E. Saldivar, Bruce M. Smith, F. L.
Spreyer, John Paul Stevens, Frederick B.
Stocker, Jr., Eugene T. Sullivan, John B.
Van Duzer, John T. Vernon, Frederick A.
Warde, George W. Weatherby, Louis J.
Weiss

*Dei

An interesting series of paintings con-
trasting modern whaling methods with those
of the days of Moby Dick may be seen in
Hall N-1.

Movies and Puppet Show . . .

CHILDREN'S PROGRAMS
BEGIN MARCH 5

Eight movie programs and a stage pre-
sentation of a puppet show are offered free
of charge for children in the annual spring
series of entertainments to be presented at
the Museum on Saturday mornings during
March and April by the James Nelson and
Anna Louise Raymond Foundation. As
additional features on two programs, the
explorers who made the films — Dr. Alfred
M. Bailey, Director of the Denver Museum
of Natural History, and Robert Davis —
will be present to tell the stories of the
people, animals, and plants shown. Like-
wise, Basil Milovsoroff will come from the
Folktale Puppet Studio at Norwich, Ver-
mont, to stage personally the showing of
the puppets which he creates.

All of the programs will be given in the
James Simpson Theatre of the Museum at
10:30 A.M. Children are welcome either
alone, accompanied by parents or other
adults, or in groups from schools, clubs and
other centers. Following are the dates and
subjects of the programs:

March 5 — Drums for a Holiday

Color picture of the life of forest people
on Africa's west coast

March 12 — China — Land op the Dragon
Typical life ways before the changes of

recent years
Also a cartoon

March 19 — Arizona Through the
Seasons
Animals and plants of an arid region
Story by Alfred M. Bailey

March 26— Iceland — Capri of the
North
How a hardy people lives; featuring an

exciting whale hunt
Story by Robert Davis

April 2 — Some Favorite Animals

Creatures of both the wilds and the farm
Also a cartoon

April 9 — El Navajo

Nomadic Indians of the Southwest
Also a cartoon

April 16 — The Carnival of Insects

The Fisherman and His Wife
Two puppet plays, presented by Basil
Milovsoroff

April 23 — People Along the Mississippi
River
The fabled stream of Tom Sawyer's and

Huckleberry Finn's adventures
Also a cartoon

April 30 — Beaver Valley

One of Walt Disney's "True-Life Adven-
ture" films
Also a cartoon

Page 6

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

March, 1955

WINNERS OF NATURE PHOTO CONTEST HONORS

Photography enthusiasts, whether they're
in the professional or "shutter-bug" cate-
gory, have been multiplying at a great rate
during the past few years. With this as-
tounding growth has come more and more

li

/

DIMPLES

By Yu-chiu Cheung, of Hong Kong. Awarded

silver medal first prize in Animal-Lifc Section of

Nature Photography Exhibition.

specialization as camera fans have concen-
trated on one phase or another of photog-
raphy. One of the largest and most popular
fields of specialization is nature photog-
raphy, and few branches produce pictures
of as much interest to the average viewer.
Each year during the past decade, the
steady growth of this form of camera
wizardry has been emphasized by the Chi-
cago International Nature Photography Ex-
hibition held under the joint auspices of the
Museum and the Nature Camera Club of
Chicago. Each of the ten shows held has
surpassed its predecessors, not only in num-
ber of persons competing and number of
photographs entered, but also in quality of

the entries which come from all parts of the
world.

This year's exhibit, the tenth, drew a
total of 3,739 entries from which 788 color
transparencies and 241 black-and-white
prints were selected for exhibition. Dis-
played last month in Stanley Field Hall of
the Museum, the exhibit was the largest of
its kind held anywhere.

Six persons won silver medals for their
photographs which placed first in the animal,
plant and general sections of the show's two
divisions — color slides and black-and-white
prints. Eighty-eight honorable mentions
were awarded, 16 of them to residents of
Chicago and vicinity. Following are lists
of persons receiving medals and honorable
mention awards in the two divisions:

MEDAL WINNERS
Prints:

Animal-Life Section; Yu-chu Cheung, Hong Kong,
China — Dimples

Plant-Life Section: G. H. Wagner, Omaha — Pua
heilani

General Section: Gertrude Pool, Palo Alto, Calif.
— Death Valley Dunes

Color Slides:

Animal-Life Section: Rev. J. R. Swain, Middle-
town, Conn. — Wood Thrush at Nest with Young.

DEATH VALLEY DUNES

By Gertrude Pool, of Palo Alto, California.

Awarded silver medal first prize in General Section

of Nature Photography Exhibition.

PUA LEILANI

By G. H. Wagner, of Omaha, Nebraska, Awarded

silver medal first prize in Plant 'Life Section of

Nature Photography Exhibition.

Plant-Life Section: Katherine M. McGregor,
Toronto, Canada — Twisted-stalk Pattern.

General Section: Elizabeth S. French, Los Angeles
— Sand Magic

HONORABLE MENTIONS
Prints and Color Slides, All Sections

Chicago Area

Herbert J. Bassman, J. H. Boulet, Jr., Louise K.
Broman, Mrs. M. Johnson Fuller, James Lee Kirkland,
Grace H. Lanctot, Arthur W. Papke, Clara Schmitt,
Myrtle R. Walgreen, Ruth Wood, Dr. Robert L.
Fleming, Blanche Kolarik, Ruasel Kriete, Margaret
Lewis, George M. Wood, Ted Farrington, and J. Musser
Miller

Outside Chicago Area

Barbara Haasch, Boise, Ida.; Grant M. Haist,
Rochester, N.Y.; Lawrence G. Heinrich, Charlottesville,
Va.; Wilfrede Jossy, Bend, Ore.; Mrs. Harold Kuhlman,
Oklahoma City; Jacques Legare, Quebec, Canada; T.
Middleton, Glossop, England; R. Menard, Paris,

"Highlights Tours" Offered Daily

Free guide-lecture tours are offered
daily except Sundays under the title
"Highlights of the Exhibits." These tours
are designed to give a general idea of the
entire Museum and its scope of activities.
They begin at 2 p.m. on Monday through
Friday and at 2 :30 p.m. on Saturday.

GIFTS TO THE MUSEUM

Following is a list of the principal gifts
received during the past month:

Department of Anthropology:

From: E. D. Hester, Jeffersonville, Ind.
— 134 pieces of ceramic recoveries, Philip-
pine Islands; Mrs. Lily Zingarelli — a tweezer
made of fiber. New Guinea

Department of Botany:

From: United States Department of Agri-
culture, Beltsville, Md. — 5 samples of
soybeans

Department of Geology:

From: Dr. Stajan Pavlovic, Belgrade,
Yugoslavia — Chalcophanite mineral, Serbia;
Clara A. Powell, Grand Rapids, Mich. — a
group of Permian Age fossils, Oklahoma;
Dominic Ramponi, Buhl, Minn. — 6-pound
lake Superior agate

Department of Zoology:

From: Chicago Zoological Society, Brook-
field, 111. — a siamang, Sumatra; Chicago
Zoological Society, Brookfleld, 111. — a croco-
dile; Dr. Ralph E. Crabill, St. Louis— a
paratype of a centipede Geophilus ampyx
Crabill, South Carolina; Dr. Bryan P. Glass,
Stillwater, Okla. — 3 bats; Harry Hoogstraal,
Cairo, Egypt — 13 bird skins and 55 mam-
mals; Dr. James N. Layne, Carbondale, 111.
— 2 batflies and 2 beetles, Illinois and New
York; Estate of Arthur L. McElhose, Ar-
lington Heights, 111. — collection of North
American Lepidoptera; Museum of Com-
parative Zoology, Canbridge, Mass. — 13
turtles, Iraq, Iran, Syria

France; M. M. Deaderick, Carpenteria, Calif.; H. J.
Ensenberger, Bloomington, 111.; Bosworth Lemere,
Carpenteria, Calif.; Jack Roche, Caldwell, N. J.; Jay
Sanders, San Diego, Calif.; Anders Sten, Vika, Sweden;
Lilla Deuel, Santa Barbara, Calif.; R. E. Egbert,
Olympia, Wash.; George E. French, Los .\ngeles:
Veronica Scheetz, Beverly Hills, Calif.; I. C. Barker,
San Francisco; Afford W. Cooper, Worland, Wyo.

Ellen Cubitt, Toronto, Canada: W. L. Dennis,
Decatur, 111.; Roger W. Flagg, Pleasantville, N. Y.;
Larry Fong, Pleasantville, N. Y.; F. C. Gebhardt,
Erie, Pa.; H. W. Greenhood, Los Angeles; H. Haigh,
Stamford, Canada; William H. Harlow, Syracuse,
N. v.; Harry G. Hoke, Stillwater, Okla.; Walter Jarvis,
New York; R. O. Malcomson, Mt. Pleasant, Mich.;
Katherine M. McGregor, Toronto, Canada; Dr. R. B.
Pomeroy, Scarsdale, N. Y.; William D. Popejoy,
Normal, 111.; Robert W. L. Potts, San Francisco;
C. W. Pugh, Toronto, Canada; Mrs. Irma Louise
Rudd, Redondo Beach, Calif.; J. .\. Russell, Sacra-
mento, Calif.; Roy S. Town, Napa, Calif.; Leslie
Tucker, Willowdale, Canada; Rudolph Zirngibl,
Rochester, N. Y.; Gertrude Pool, Palo Alto, Calif."

H. Lewis Batts, Jr., Kalamazoo, Mich.; E. R.
Degginger, Syracuse, N. Y.; F. G. Farrell, Cristobal,
Canal Zone; R. M. Greer, Joy, 111.; Wilfred Kimber,
Monson, Mass.; L. J. Loomis, Endicott, N. Y.; Louis
Quitt, Buffalo, N. Y.; Samuel Stern, New York;
Morton Strauss, University Heights, Ohio; H. A.
Thornhill, Merced, Calif.; John E. Walsh, Beverly,
Mass.; Mrs. John E. Walsh, Beverly, Mass.; Tosi
Giovanni, Modena, Italy; Carl Mans^eld, Blooming-
dale, Ohio

SPECIAL MEDALS FOR COLOR SLIDES

Awarded by the Photographic Society of America

Mrs. Blanche Kolarik, Chicago — Fog Over Koke;
E. R. Degginger, Syracuse, N. Y. — The Wood Nymph

March, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 7

SATURDAY TRAVEL FILMS AND LECTURES BEGIN THIS MONTH

EVERY SATURDAY AFTERNOON
during March and April, Museum
Members, their guests, and the general
public will visit faraway lands of beauty,
enchantment, and romance. Through the
medium of color motion pictures, audiences
in the Museum's James Simpson Theatre
will accompany explorers and scientists who
travel to all parts of the world on their
picture-taking expeditions.

The Saturday visual jaunts will be held
at 2:30 p.m. from March 5 through April
30. Nine lecturers will show films on Brazil,
Florida, Arizona, Puerto Rico and the Virgin
Islands, Hong Kong, the Pacific Coast, the
Holy Lands, Mexico, and Australia. The
annual spring course is presented under the
provisions of the Edward E. Ayer Lecture
Foundation Fund. Admission is restricted
to adults because accommodations are
limited, but special free motion picture pro-
grams for children will be held every Satur-
day morning during the same two months
under the auspices of the James Nelson and
Anna Louise Raymond Foundation.

Always a popular Museum event, the
travel lectures offer knowledge and educa-
tion in an exciting and entertaining form.
Following is the schedule for this season's
program:

March 5 — Brazil

Eric Pavel

Brazil's oldest city, Bahia, with its palaces
built on the first land discovered by the
Portugese, and Rio de Janeiro, a city of
modern buildings, beaches, and open-air
markets, offer sharp contrasts to the Amazon
jungle with its primitive Indian inhabitants
who share their home with snakes, lizards,
crocodiles, and birds. Cities and jungles
both are shown in Brazil-born Eric Pavel's
color film. A trip to busy Sao Paulo reveals
the fastest-growing city in the world. Im-
pre.ssive also is another southern Brazilian
city, Santos, the port of entry and exit for
Brazil's richest area. After a look at coffee,
sugar, and cotton plantations, the film pro-
vides views of the mining industry and of
Iguassu, the largest and most spectacular
waterfall in the world. Mr. Pavel is director
of the Pan American Press and Film of
Brazil.

March 12 — Florida — Ponce de Leon's
Fountain of Youth

Arthur C. Twomey

Familiar to Museum travel film audiences.
Dr. Twomey, who is director of the Carnegie
Institute's Division of Education, and Cu-
rator of Ornithology at Carnegie Museum,
will present a panoramic view of Florida
showing its diversified economic features
and tourist attractions. Viewers will follow
the route of Ponce de Leon's search for the
Fountain of Youth in the land of Bimini as
they penetrate the mysterious region of the

Everglades with stopovers in the Keys,
Florida Bay and other points of interest.
Sound recordings made on the spot are
added to heighten the film's realism. Florida
as a modern fountain of youth — its marine
studios, Sanibel Island, a shell collector's
paradise, and many other landmarks will
appear on Dr. Twomey's film.

RESERVED SEATS
FOR MEMBERS

No tickets are necessary for ad-
mission to these lectures. A sec-
tion of the Theatre is allocated to
Members of the Museum, each of
whom is entitled to two reserved
seats. Requests for these seats
should be made in advance by
telephone (W Abash 2-9410) or in
writing, and seats will be held in
the Member's name until 2:25
o'clock on the lecture day.

March 19 — Arizona Through the
Seasons

Alfred M. Bailey

Arizona's year-'round spectacular scenic
attractions and its special lure for the natu-
ralist, are graphically shown by Dr. Bailey,
former staff member of this Museum, who
is now director of the Denver Museum of
Natural History. The land of the Navajos,
picturesque Monument Valley, El Capitan,
the mesa-dwelling Hopis, the Petrified
Forest, the great meteorite crater. Canyon
Diablo, and the awe-inspiring Grand Canyon
are only a few of the scenic spots included in
the film. Arizona landscapes ablaze with
wildflowers, the prehistoric ruins of Monte-
zuma Castle and Tuzigoot, and many birds
and animals native to this picturesque
region, also are pictured.

March 26 — Puerto Rico and the Virgin
Islands

Robert Davis

Mr. Davis' travelogue begins with the
ageless walls of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and
continues to Charlotte Amalie in the Virgin
Islands, illustrating throughout the blending
of the Old World and the New. Harvesting
of sugar cane and pineapples, breathtaking
views of the mountain country, and "The
Anvil," a 5,000-foot mountain covered with
tropical rain forest, are shown. Of historical
interest is the celebration of San Juan
Bautista Day, held in honor of the patron
saint of Puerto Rico, and the site of the oldest
church under the United States flag. Porta
Coeli, dating from 1511. A trip through
the busy, narrow streets of Charlotte Amalie
reflects its Danish influence.

April 2 — Hong Kong, Bamboo Curtain
Colony

Phil Walker

Former radio and television producer Phil
Walker, who concentrates primarily on
people in his films, depicts Hong Kong in
terms of its teeming Chinese population.
He shows interesting aspects of life in Vic-
toria City, Kowloon, the Red China border
town of Lowu, and the new territories.
Viewers will make a luncheon visit aboard
the floating restaurants of Aberdeen, see
Red Chinese guards and a Communist ship
unloading, the "water people" — sampan and
junk dwellers of Aberdeen, and Hong Kong .
harbor. The film provides a peek through
the Bamboo Curtain from this British
crown colony.

April 9 — Jewels of the Pacific Coast

Julian Gromer

Los Angeles, then north to Carmel-by-
the-Sea, next, Monterrey, the Redwoods,
San Francisco, a 30-mile trip up the Rogue
River, views of Spirit Lake, Mount Rainier
and the Seattle waterway — these are some
of the highlights of the first reel of the film
presented by world traveler Julian Gromer
of Elgin, Illinois. Second reel in the pro-
gram is the story of "Cheechako" (tender-
foot), recent winner of the Photographic
Society's grand award for the best com-
mercial film of the year. The cheechako,
making a movie in the wilds of Alaska,
learns the hard way and makes mistakes as
his guide takes him through the snow-capped
mountains, glaciers, salmon and trout
streams, pine forests and mountain lakes,
brown bear country, and impressive icebergs
of Alaska. After consuming too much fresh
salmon the cheechako dreams he is pursued
by totem poles which have come to life.

April 16 The Holy Lands Today

Kenneth Richter

Kenneth Richter's years in Jordan, Syria
and the Arab country while making a film
for the State Department enabled him to
photograph such ordinarily inaccessible
places as the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem
— the most sacred place in the Islam faith
after Mecca and Medina — while a religious
service was in progress. Other highlights
of the film include the tomb of John the
Baptist, Crak des Chevaliers, the huge hill-
top castle built by the Crusaders; and
Baalbek, Byblos, Sidon, Damascus, and
Palmyra where modern irrigation and oil
pipelines are in strange contrast to a back-
ground of Biblical antiquity. Also shown
are the fabulous bazaars of Aleppo, with
closeups of interior scenes never before
shown, the Arab legion, the Holy places of
Jordan, a Bedouin sequence, and the
Palestine refugee story — all filmed in a re-
{Continued on page 8, column 3)

Page 8

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

March, 1955

ST. PATRICK'S CABBAGE
VIES WITH SHAMROCK

By THEODOR JUST

CHIEF CURATOR, DEPARTMENT OP BOTANY

NOW THAT SHAMROCK has lost its
place in the official Flora of the British
Isles (1952),* St. Patrick's Cabbage may
belatedly come into its own. Native in
twelve mountainous counties along the
northwestern and southeastern coasts of
Ireland, this little perennial plant grows
abundantly among rocks in sun or shade on
noncalcareous soils (calcifuge) and ascends
to over 3,400 feet. It has a rosette of nearly
round, spatulate, or oval leaves with
toothed margins and petioles that are longer
than their blades, leafless stems, and white
flowers whose petals have from one to three
yellow spots at the base and many crimson
spots above. Far from being a real cabbage,
it bears the scientific name Saxifraga spathu-
laris and belongs to the saxifrage family
(Saxifragaceae), many members of which
are long time favorites in rock gardens. Its
common name apparently refers to the fact
that an early collector found it on Croagh
Patrick (2,510 feet high) in County Mayo
on the west coast of Ireland.

Its nearest relatives are Saxifraga umbrosa
of the Pyrenees, introduced in Great Britain
in 1792, and London Pride (Saxifraga
spathularis x umbrosa), a hybrid of unknown
origin but not known in the wild state,
which is commonly cultivated in gardens
and often escapes from there and becomes
temporarily naturalized.

St. Patrick's Cabbage is indeed a plant
of considerable interest. Being one of
twelve species of plants definitely known
to occur in Ireland but not in Great Britain,
it belongs to a south European stock con-
centrated in northern Portugal and Spain.
Unless these species were able to survive
the glacial period somewhere in Ireland,
these and other so-called Atlantic elements
of southwestern Europe were probably the
first and therefore the oldest immigrants
after the glaciers receded. Thus these plants
are surely older inhabitants and members
of the Irish flora than the remainder, in-
cluding the shamrock.

flora of Great Britain and Ireland, published
in 1952 and recently received at the Mu-
seum, the name shamrock is no longer
applied to any plant — in fact, the word

* ... as told in the following, reprinted from
April, 1953 BULLETIN:

A Shock For Erin
A tradition was shattered last month
[March, 1953) on St. Patrick's Day when
Dr. Theodor Just, the Museum's Chief Cu-
rator of Botany, called attention to the fact
that there is no longer any such plant as a
shamrock — at least, none recognized under
that name by botanists. Various three-
leaved plants that have been called sham-
rocks and used by millions of people each
year for "the wearin' o' the green" are now
officially designated only by other names.
Dr. Just found that in the latest official

ST. PATRICK'S CABBAGE
A possible rival to the traditional shamrock, its
scienti6c name is Saxifraga spathularis. Pistil on
left; petal on right. Drawing from "Illustrations
of the British Flora," by W.H. Fitch and W. G. Smith.

shamrock simply does not appear anywhere
in the book. All the plant species of Great
Britain and Ireland known to botanists are
listed in the book which is the first new
official flora of the British Isles to be pub-
lished in more than twenty-five years.
Earlier floras had used the word shamrock
as an alternative name for several plants.

Audubon Screen-Tour to Show
Land of the Mormons

"Mormonland" is the title of the fourth
"screen-tour" offered by the Illinois Audu-
bon Society in its current series. It will be
presented at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 3,
in the James Simpson Theatre of the Mu-
seum. The color films will be accompanied
by a lecture given by Dr. Alfred M. Bailey,
Director of the Denver Museum of Natural
History. His films and narrative cover
the state of Utah from Great Salt Lake to
the Bear River marshes, and from desert to
juniper country. The general public is
invited, and admission is free. Members
of the Illinois Audubon Society and Mem-
bers of the Museum are entitled to two re-
served seats, obtainable by presentation of
their membership cards before 2:25 p.m.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

LECTURE SERIES

(Continued from page 7)
gion where three great world religions have
their holy places.

April 23 — Mexico

Willis Butler, Jr.

Mr. Butler and his wife traveled 4,000
miles to complete this color film which
illustrates Mexico's variety of scenic won-
ders— both old and new. Included in the
film are a trip through the floating gardens
of Xochimilco, the story of the secret pottery
art of the Tonala Indians, a visit to Gua-
dalajara— Mexico's second city, and to
Acapulco, beauty spot of the west coast,
tile artistry in Puebla, Aztec dances in full
costume, Mexican families at Spa Panafjel,
newly-discovered art among ancient pyra-
mids, the "new look" in Mexico City's
architecture, a flower market, Mexico's
Fourth of July, and scenes of the Mexican
capital at night. Mr. Butler is a North-
western University faculty member.

April 30— Highliglits of Australia

Allen Keast

Two films, "Walkabout" and "Tjurunga,"
documenting the lives, habits, and traditions
of a tribe of Australian aborigines, will be
shown by Mr. Keast, Curator of Birds and
Reptiles at the Australian Museum, during
the first part of his program on Australia.
A third film, "Coral Wonderland," shows
coral growths and other sea life viewed with
an underwater camera. Termed the "world's
most primitive men," the aborigines in Mr.
Keast's films are seen hunting, cooking a
kangaroo, participating in ceremonials, and
engaging in many other activities in their
colorful desert environment. In "Coral
Wonderland," brilliant fishes, marine worms,
clams, the colorful nudibranch, sea ane-
mones, and many others are photographed
in their deep-sea home.

Expedition to Survey Volcanoes
of Central America

In continuation of his research and col-
lecting of specimens from important vol-
canoes, Dr. Sharat K. Roy, Chief Curator
of Geology, is scheduled to begin in March
an expedition that will start in El Salvador,
and branch out into Nicaragua. If time
permits, he will extend his activities into
Guatemala and other parts of the Central
American isthmus. Dr. Roy has been en-
gaged in volcanological studies for several
years past. He was the first person to
climb the Izalco, most active of Central
American volcanoes, and he has climbed all
other major Salvadorean volcanoes. His
undertakings in this field are expected to
culminate in a more detailed report on the
subject than has heretofore been made. A
definitive monograph, to be published by
the Museum, is planned.

PRINTED BY CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PRESS

Vol.26.No.4-ApriM955

Chicago Natural
' History Museum

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Page 2

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

April, 1955

Chicago Natural History Museum

FODNDED BY MARSHALL FlELD, 1893

Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago 5
Telephone: WAbash 2-9410

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES ~

Lester Armour Henry P. Ishah

Sewell L. Avery Hughston M. McBain

Wm. Mccormick Blair William H. Mitchell

Wai.ther Buchen John T. Pirie, Jr.

Walter J. Cummings Clarence B. Randall

Joseph N. Field George A. Richardson

Marshall Field John G. Searle

Marshall Field, Jr. Solomon A. Smith

Stanley Field Louis Ware

Samuel Insull, Jr. John P. Wilson

OFFICERS

Stanley Field President

Marshall Field First Vice-President

Hughston M. McBain Second Vice-President

Joseph N. Field Third Vice-President

Solomon A. Smith Treasurer

Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary

John R. Millar Assistant Secretary

THE BULLETIN

EDITOR
Clifford C. Gregg Director of the Museum

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology

Theodor Just Chief Curator of Botany

Sharat K. Roy C*ie/ Curator of Geology

Earl P. Schmidt Chief Curator of Zoology

MANAGING EDITOR
H. B. Harte Public Relations Counsel

ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Helen A. MacMinn Jane Rockwell

Members are requested to inform the Museum
promptly of changes of address.

THE LARGEST BIRD

By AUSTIN L. RAND
curator of birds

WHAT is the largest of birds?
One must approach such a question
as this with caution, straightforward as the
question seems. First, do you mean weight
or wing spread? These are the two usual

Size by wing spread . . .

criteria and they will give quite different
results. In weight the ostrich-like flightless
running birds head the list. But in wing
spread the ostrich, with degenerate wings,
ranks relatively low.

The second element to watch for is the
reliabiUty of the records. Somehow, certain
records that seem impossibly large have be-
come current and must be discarded. This
is well illustrated by Dr. R. C. Murphy's
comments in 1936 on wing spread of the
albatross. Current authorities gave up to

17 feet as the wing spread of the wandering
albatross (which is about the same size as
the other "great" albatross, the royal). After
sifting the evidence and giving his own
measurements, he concludes that about 11 J^
feet represents the maximum expanse of any
known bird.

In the following, a presentation of the
average or normal is attempted for com-
parative purposes rather than an absolute
"record."

VARIATION

The weight of a bird would obviously vary
with age, sex, and the amount of fat the bird
carried. In addition, the species may attain
different sizes in different parts of its range.
This is illustrated by the weights of the
Canada geese, adapted from F. H. Kort-
right's book. Individual and sexual varia-
tion is shown by the large eastern subspecies,
the common Canada goose: male, 8 pounds
2 ounces to 13 pounds 8 ounces (average, 9
pounds 3 ounces) ; female, 7 pounds 6 ounces
to 13 pounds (average, 7 pounds 14 ounces).
Variation correlated with geography (i.e.
subspecies) is shown for males, average
weight only, as follows:

Common Canada

goose 9 pounds 3 ounces

Western Canada

goose 10 pounds 4 ounces

Lesser Canada goose 5 pounds 2 ounces

Richardson's Canada

goose 4 pounds 14 ounces

Cackling Canada
goose 3 pounds 6 ounces

FLIGHTLESS BIRDS — WEIGHT

The ostrich is the largest living bird.
When it stands up to look around, its head
may be 8 feet from the ground and it may
weigh 300 pounds. Ostriches' strength is
such that as a stunt people ride on their
backs. The ostrich's nearest rival is the
emu of Australia that may weigh 100 pounds,
and the cassowary of the New Guinea-

'Ji,rC^-^-

-THIS MONTH'S COVER-

Recently volcanoes have rivaled
politics, the cold war, and atomic
developments for front-page at-
tention. The latest eruption, near
Mauna Loa in Hawaii, brought a
demand for information on vol-
canoes, in response to which Dr.
Sharat K. Roy, Chief Curator of
Geology, prepared the article on
page 3. Our cover picture shows
the devastating effects of volcanic
eruptions of explosive type. The
havoc shown was wrought by the
eruption of the Mexican volcano,
Paricutin, most recent of all vol-
canoes of steam-blast type. Much
of the lava-flows that engulfed the
village in foreground of the photo-
graph came from one of the vents
in the flank of the volcanic cone.

or by mass and weight

Australia area is close behind, weighing up
to 90 pounds. By comparison the ostrich-
like rhea of South America is a pygmy,
weighing only about 45 pounds.

That there were giants in earlier days may
or may not be true of humans, but it's cer-
tainly true of birds. The moas of New
Zealand and the Aepyomis of Madagascar
are extinct, known only from bones, but
from a study of these we find they were cer-
tainly much larger than the ostrich. We can
never have actual weights, of course, but
Dr. Dean Amadon, comparing their remains
with the bones of ostriches, comes to the con-
clusion that moas may have reached a weight
of 500 pounds and Aepyomis a weight of
1,000 pounds, the largest known bird of all
time.

These flightless birds, of which the ostrich
is the best-known type, are all long-legged
running birds with degenerate wings that
have no function in locomotion. Their
wings are so small that they probably are of
little use even as balancers. But another
type of flightless bird also reaches a large
size — the emperor penguin, which may attain
a weight of 75 pounds. In the penguins the
wings, though reduced, are modified into
flippers and still function in locomotion — in
swimming — rather than the short, compar-
atively small feet.

Though the largest birds are flightless, not
all flightless birds are large. The kiwi of
New Zealand and the smaller species of pen-
guins could probably be matched for weight
amongst domestic fowls. There are some
flightless rails, such as the one from Tristan
da Cunha, that are little larger than sparrows.

FLYING BIRDS — WING SPAN

The largest flying birds are probably the
wandering and the royal albatross, with a
wing spread of about 11 Jo feet and a weight
(Continued on page 5, column S)

April, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page S

VOLCANOES AID IN PROBING SECRETS OF INNER EARTH

By SHARAT K. ROY

CHIEF CURATOR, DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY

Dr. Roy left in March to make collections of
volcanic specimens and continue his studies of
volcanoes in El Salvador, Costa Rica, and
Nicaragua. The expedition is a continuance
of research of the past several years.

RECENT LAVA ERUPTIONS asso-
ciated with the volcano Mauna Loa in
Hawaii have once again brought the subject
of volcanism sharply into focus. There does
not seem to be any lessening of interest in
Nature's pyrotechnics.

From the standpoint of volume, Mauna
Loa is the world's largest volcano. At 13,686
feet, it Is nearly as high as Mauna Kea
(13,835 feet), which is the world's highest
mountain if measured from the ocean floor.
Of Mauna Kea's total height, 81,750 feet
(almost half a mile higher than Mount
Everest), fully 17,915 feet is under the sea.

The islands of the Hawaiian group, the
largest of which is Hawaii, are but the sum-
mits of an enormous submarine volcanic
ridge. The material composing the ridge
consists almost entirely of basaltic lava that
has risen intermittently along a fissure on the
ocean floor from an average depth of 18,000
feet. Although Mauna Loa is often referred
to as the "monarch of modern volcanoes," it
is not of the explo.sive type, nor are its sister
volcanoes, Mauna Kea, Kilauea, and other
lesser ones.

"quiet eruptions"

The eruptive activities of the Hawaiian
volcanoes are confined almost entirely to
quiet lava-flows from the cracks in the flanks
of the cones or from those at the base of the
cones and in the surrounding areas. For
this reason the terms "Hawaiian eruption"
and "quiet eruption" are used synonymously
in geologic literature. The characteristic
feature of the Hawaiian eruption is that,
preceding an eruption, the lava accumulates
in the crater, but before it can rise to the
summit and well out, its weight ruptures the
walls of the crater. With pressure thus
relieved, fountains of incandescent lava leap
into the air and fall to form a river of fire,
which, when very hot, is known to have
moved faster than a man can run, ten to
twelve miles an hour. The principal char-
acteristic of Hawaiian lava, which is basaltic,
is its fluidity. It is not to be construed that
the eruptive behavior of a given type of
volcano is always the same. On the con-
trary, volcanoes are notoriously fickle; the
same volcano may and does change from
one type to another. In historic times, two
disastrous explosive eruptions have taken
place in the Hawaiian Islands, and that there
will be many more in time to come is almost
a certainty.

In direct contrast to the Hawaiian vol-
canoes are the volcanoes of the Mexican

Cordillera, Central America, and the East
Indies. In these areas the earth breathes
fire and the volcanoes erupt murder. With
but a few exceptions these are all viciously
explosive volcanoes. Hundreds of cata-
strophic explosions with successions of earth-
quakes have killed thousands of people,
wiped out great cities, dammed and deflected
streams, cut oK water supplies, and blocked
highways to which survivors fled to escape
to safer grounds. Man's memory refuses to
recall or relive the death and destruction
that accompany violent explosions. In the

CONTINUOUS ERUPTION SINCE 1770
Volcan Izalco in El Salvador, the most active o£ all
Central American volcanoes. It has been erupting

almost continuously for more than 184 years.

Messina Straits in 1908 more than 200,000
lives were snuflfed out by a single explosion.

PACIFIC OCEAN VOLCANO BELT

Fortunately for humanity, the periods of
volcanic quiescence far exceed those of vio-
lence. If this were not the case, milHons of
people now inhabiting areas along the "belts
of fire" would be forced to abandon their
lands made fertile by the decomposition of
volcanic ash and migrate inland to start life
anew amidst uncertainties and in communi-
ties less to their liking. This mass disloca-
tion would be particularly severe in the vast
belt around the Pacific Ocean — a belt that
begins in Tierra del Fuego and extends
through the Andes, Central America, Mexico,
and Alaska to the coast of A.sia and south-
ward through Japan, the Philippines, East
Indies, and New Zealand.

What governs the type and/or character
of an eruption? It has been stated that the
eruptive element par excellence is gas — that
the gas is the active agent and that magma
or lava is its vehicle. Indeed, eruptions are

actuated by lava charged with gas and steam
in a fissure underground. Since the gases
differ in their proportions and the lavas in
their constituents, we have either quiet lava-
flows or steam-blast explosions. As a rule,
quiet eruptions are associated with the extru-
sion of basic lavas, which, being more fluid
than acidic lavas, permit the imprisoned
gases to escape more freely into the air.
The acid lavas, on the other hand, are stiff
and viscous. They congeal rapidly in the
vents, impede the passage of steam and other
gases that accumulate in large quantities,
and build up a condition for an explosion of
immense violence.

HEAT SOURCES

The ultimate cause of volcanic eruptions is
heat. Where does the heat come from?
If it is a part of the original heat of a once
very hot earth it should be evenly distributed.
Volcanoes, however, indicate that only cer-
tain areas become heated intermittently at
certain times in geological history. As a
matter of inquiry into whether the radio-
activity of uranium and thorium is a source
of heat in volcanic actions, volcanic ejecta —
lavas, ashes, and the gases evolved from
fumaroles — have been analyzed, but the
amounts found in each case are too small to
be significant. Other probable sources of
heat, such as gravitational compression,
faulting, and folding may be considered, but
these too can hardly be expected to produce,
individually or collectively, the magnitude of
heat required. Perhaps it is well to assume
that the development of high temperature in
localized areas during volcanism results from
the interactions of several heat sources rather
than any one in particular.

Volcanoes offer some of the few means
we have for probing into the enigmas of
the Earth's turbulent interior. Mere under-
standing of the morphology and products of
volcanoes is not enough. The time is now
ripe for concentrated field studies at active
volcanoes of their past history, structural
setting, and relationship to neighboring
volcanoes.

Volcanism has long ceased to be an ab-
struse science. Though much remains to be
known, certain diagnostic criteria as signs of
impending volcanic activity are fairly well
established, and prediction as to the time and
areas to be affected can be made in many
cases. The certainties of physical law are
behind all this and play a major role. The
formula once determined can be applied to
various types of volcanoes. We owe much
to the volcanologists stationed in volcano
observatories for the increasing body of infor-
mation that gradually makes clearer the
physics and chemistry of eruptions and
earthquakes. Already the damage to life
and property by timely predictions has been
appreciably reduced.

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Page 4

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

April, 1955

FISH COLLECTING ALONG COASTS OF MEXICO

By LOREN p. woods
cubatoh of fishes

THE MEXICO Zoological Field Trip of
1954-55 left Chicago on last November
26 and returned on March 7. The principal
objective was to collect marine fishes along
the Pacific Coast of the Isthmus of Tehu-
antepec in southeastern Mexico and in the
vicinity of Acapulco.

ing and handling of gear very difficult. The
effect of the winds is to blow the sea flat or
at least to change huge swells to short chops,
so that from shore to five or ten miles out the
small boats ride on an even keel. The
shrimping grounds are far to the east, shel-
tered from the strongest winds by high moun-
tains but still in the area where the rollers
have been flattened.

'■^'-^^"^^^S^i^

BEACH SEINE-FISHING IN MEXICO
At La Vcntosa, a fishing village near Salina Cruz, all the men and boys work at hauling seines. Nets 20 feet
deep and 100 to 300 yards long are loaded into dugout canoes and set to surround schools of fish in the bay.

The first base of operations was Salina
Cruz, a busy but small seaport and Pacific
terminus of the trans-isthmus railroad.
Salina Cruz, though only of minor impor-
tance as a commercial fishing and shrimping
port, was chosen because it is the most
southern port from which shrimp boats oper-
ate and because the shrimping is carried on
near a hypothetical zoogeographic boundary
line as well as along the Mexico-Guatemala
political boundary line.

The Gulf of Tehuantepec is a broad curv-
ing bight with east-west shore lying only
125 miles south of the southern shore of the
Gulf of Mexico. During the winter months
strong north winds spill out of the Gulf of
Mexico, funnel across the low mountains of
the isthmus, and blow with considerable
force out into the Pacific. Winds of nearly
gale strength are generally avoided by trawler
fishermen who put out to sea in vessels of 50
to 65 feet in length, but in this region the
winds are actually more help than hindrance.
The large Pacific swells rolling into the shal-
low Gulf of Tehuantepec toss the trawlers a
great deal, and this movement makes trawl-

A few days after arriving in Salina Cruz,
arrangements were made for me to make a
twelve-day cruise aboard a shrimp boat as a
guest of the shrimp company to collect the
fish specimens I desired for study. Since
shrimp nets capture a large variety and
quantity of fishes, there was no difficulty in
making the collection, and within a day or
two one 25-gallon tank was already full.
The second tank was gradually filled during
the remaining ten days as additional species
were caught. Shrimping in the Gulf of
Tehuantepec is carried on day and night,
the net being dragged for three hours, hauled,
emptied, and immediately set for three more
hours. This continues with monotonous
regularity round the clock, day after day.
Preserving specimens, sleeping, and eating
are done while the net is out.

At this time of year the shrimp were living
in comparatively shallow water of 12 to 20
fathoms and from one to five miles offshore.
Every haul resulted in 500 to 2,000 pounds
of fishes and miscellaneous invertebrates to
be sorted from shrimp and fish specimens.
Several kinds of sea catfishes and numerous

species of drums made up the bulk of the
catch, but there was also a great variety of
grunts, flatfishes, sharks and rays, herrings,
anchovies, and other miscellany. Altogether
nearly a hundred different kinds of fishes
were netted.

OTHER SALINA CRUZ FISHING

The shrimp-boat cruise ended December
24, and so Christmas morning was spent
sorting and wrapping the specimens and
packing them into the smallest possible
space to make room for more. A beach
seine-fishery at Salina Cruz produced addi-
tional species of fishes, and still other species
were taken by fishing with a light at night
and by treating tidepools with derri.s-root
powder to drive the fishes from their holes
and stun them so they could be caught.
Fishing by the latter method was not very
productive in number of individuals or spe-
cies, presumably because the waves carried
fine sand, resulting in clean-scoured rocks
and very poor living conditions for reef fishes.

Along the Chiapas coast of Mexico, east
and south of Salina Cruz, is a network of
shallow mangrove-bordered lagoons. Some
of these lagoons are fresh water, others are
very salty during the dry season, while still
others are merely brackish. They contain a
good variety of fresh-water and marine fishes
living together. There is usually a fishing
village on the shore of each lagoon, and the
villagers regard the lagoon as their private
family fish-pond. One of the most interest-
ing fishes living in the lagoons is the alligator
gar, known locally as the peje armada. Gars
had been reported from this area, but no
specimens had ever been collected for study.
No entire specimens were available because
the fishermen remove the head and slit the
fish as soon as it is speared. Later the fish
are filleted, salted, and dried for the market.
A three-day trip was made by land down the
coast to the lagoon of Cabeza del Toro (the
name derived from the shape of the lagoon)
near Puerto Arista. Here the fishermen
were induced to bring in three small gars
without first removing the heads. The alli-
gator gar is known to live in the Usumacinta
River on the Gulf of Mexico side of the Isth-
mus of Tehuantepec and in Lake Nicaragua,
as well as in the Mississippi River valley,
gulf coast of the United States, and Cuba.
Study of these specimens from the Pacific
coastal lagoons may provide a clue concern-
ing the route by which they reached their
present isolated habitat.

COLLECTING NEAR ACAPULCO

After five weeks of gathering fishes in the
vicinity of Salina Cruz, the collection was
taken to Mexico City and sent to Chicago.
This provided much needed space for addi-
tional specimens when the base of operations
was shifted to Acapulco. Acapulco, a resort
city, is sheltered by mountains from the
effects of the strong winds that blow the
warm surface-water away from the Gulf of

April, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 5

Tehuantepec, is easily accessible, and pro-
vides excellent facilities for shore collecting.
In addition there are large bays, sheltered
coves, and rocky islets with abundant tide-
pools and shallow submerged reefs inhabited
by a number of small fishes of many varieties.
These species, such as butterfly fishes, tangs,
wrasses, and demoiselles that are usually
associated with living coral and rocky reefs,
were very scarce or absent from the sandy
shores where we had been collecting earlier.
Each particular locality around Acapulco
Bay, where rotenone was used to stun the
fish, yielded 40 to 50 species, and after three
weeks of fishing a collection of between 100
and 150 species was gathered. Some beach
and lagoon fishing is carried on by the local
fishermen, and in addition another group of
fishermen fish at night around the entrance
of the bay with handlines, spear and dipnet,
using a lantern to attract the fishes. Their
catch added a number of species that were
not caught by the methods I had been using.
During the past two years the Museum
has received collections of fishes from Guay-
mas (Mexico), from the Gulf of Nicoya on
the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, from both
coasts of Panama, and from the Gulf of
Mexico and West Indian islands. It is
especially helpful to have specimens of a par-
ticular species from various parts of its range
for study and also useful to have compre-
hensive collections from various provinces in
a particular zoogeographic region in order to
delineate the boundaries and thus to under-
stand some of the limiting factors and eco-
logical preferences of certain species. There
are a number of resemblances between the
fish fauna of the eastern tropical Pacific and
the West Indian fish fauna (including the
Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea shores)

SPOTTfcU PORCUPINE-FISH
Increasing its size by swallowing air was disastrous
for the fairy-tale frog. The porcupine-fish, better
fitted for this behavior, uses inflation as a natural
protective device. Swallowing air or water not only
changes the shape of the fish but assists in erecting
its long hard spines. Other fishes seek less prickly,
more appropriately shaped prey for food.

that need further study and explanation. It
is hoped that careful study of the collections
obtained by this expedition can be combined
with data obtained from the collections men-
tioned above to add to our knowledge of the
geographic distribution and variation prob-
lems of the American tropical marine fishes.

"Highlights Tours" Offered Daily

Free guide-lecture tours are offered
daily except Sundays under the title
"Highlights of the Exhibits." These tours
are designed to give a general idea of the
entire Museum and its scope of activities.
They begin at 2 p.m. on Monday through
Friday and at 2 :30 p.m. on Saturday.

Special tours on subjects within the range
of the Museum exhibits are available Mon-
days through Fridays by advance request.

Although there are no tours on Sundays,
the Museum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

STAFF NOTES

Dr. Theodor Just, Chief Curator of
Botany, told about some of the widespread
fallacies concerning mushrooms in a recent
guest-appearance on the television program
"Women and the World" over station
WBKB, illustrating his talk with Museum
material. On March 17 he lectured on
"Adventures with Plants" in the noontime
series presented at the Chicago Public
Library for audiences of Loop workers. . . .
Henry S. Dybas, Associate Curator of
Insects, represented both the Museum and
the South Cook County Mosquito Abatement
District at a meeting of the Illinois Mosquito
Control Association held at the University of
Illinois in Urbana. . . . Miss Harriet Smith,
lecturer on the staff of Raymond Founda-
tion, spoke on the mission of the Mu.seum
over radio station WNMP in Evanston,
Illinois . . . Colonel Clifford C. Gregg,
Director, recently told "The Inside Story of
the Museum" for the Kiwanis Club of Gary,
Indiana.

YOUTHFUL SCIENTISTS
TO STAGE SHOW

Some of the Darwins, Newtons, and Ein-
steins of the future will have their day at
Chicago Natural History Museum on April
16 at a science fair sponsored by the Chicago
Teachers Science Foundation. Grade-school
pupils (from the 6th grade up) and high-
school students will display their achieve-
ments in the fields of biology (including con-
servation), geology, anthropology, mathe-
matics, physics, and chemistry. The fair at
the Museum is for those pupils enrolled in
schools of the West Area, bounded by North
Avenue, the Sanitary and Ship Canal, and
47th Street. (South Area exhibits go to the
Museum of Science and Industry on April 2;
the North Area display was held at the
Chicago Academy of Sciences on March 26.)

The exhibits, all the creations of young
people completed without aid other than
advice from teachers, parents, or other adults,
will be displayed on the second-floor gallery
of the Museum at the head of the grand stair-
case. The students themselves will be pres-

THE LARGEST BIRD

(Continued from page 2)

of 15 to 20 pounds. The next-largest flying
birds are the Andean condor that must apn
proach 10 feet in wing spread and the Cali-
fornia condor that has a wing spread of about
9 feet and a weight of 20 pounds, according
to C. Koford's studies.

Unlike the running ostrich-like birds, the
largest fossil flying bird was only a little
larger than present-day birds. The largest
is Teratornis, a Pleistocene vulture of North
America, which has been estimated to weigh
50 pounds, a truly enormous weight for a
flying bird. We can't get its wing spread
directly because we have no feathers of this
fossil, but its bones, according to Dr. H. I.
Fishers, show it to have a wing spread, in
skeleton, oi 7}4 feet, and the wing itself a
length of about 39 inches compared with
31 1-2 inches for the California condor and 34
inches compared with the Andean condor.
If its quills were as long as those of the
Andean condor, which it probably exceeded,
a couple of feet would be added on each side
of the 7 J-^-foot skeletal spread to give a wing
spread of about 12 to 13 feet, slightly larger
than that of the albatross.

Surprisingly, while the largest running
birds were way in advance of any competi-
tion, this is not true of the largest flying birds.
The trumpeter swan has a wing spread of 8
feet and a weight of 28 pounds; the white
pelican a spread of 0 feet and weight of about
10}^ pounds; and the whooping crane a
spread of 7 feet and a weight of about lOVi
pounds.

Not to isolate these figures, following are
the wing spreads and weights of some of our
more familiar birds:

Wing spread Weight

Bald eagle 79 inches 9.5 pounds

Great blue heron . . 70 inches 7 pounds

Turkey buzzard. . . 70 inches 4.5 pounds

Red-tailed hawk . . 48 inches 3.25 pounds

Crow 3G inches 1.3 pounds

Sparrow hawk . . . .21 inches 4 ounces

Robin 15 inches 2.5 ounces

Song sparrow 9 inches .88 ounces

ent to explain and demonstrate their prod-
ucts. Theodore W. Wallschlaeger, principal
of the Palmer Elementary School, will be in
charge. Awards will be made in each grade,
and winners may take part in later science
exhibitions from all areas. An idea of the
type of exhibits that may be expected is
shown by last year's list, which included: a
model of the human ear, six-inch telescope,
Navaho Indian artifacts, model of an atomic
pile, a miniature Stone-Age diorama, photo-
electric circuit, mechanical model of the
earth, a garden-collected exhibit of insects,
butterflies of Chicagoland, "do-it-yourself"
electronic devices, and classification of
plants.

Page 6

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

April, 1955

STUDENTS FIND SCIENCE
IS NO SNAP JOB

By robin D. ROTHMAN

An apprentice's view of the routine toil be-
hind scientific endeavor is presented here by an
Antioch College student employed temporarily
at the Museum. Under a "co-op" system, stu-
dents alterrmte periods of study on the Antioch
campus with periods afield on jobs. Miss Roth-
man was assigned to the so-called "Mecca
Project" (Bulletin, November, 195It) involv-
ing fossiliferous black shale of Pennsylvania
age quarried near Mecca, Indiana, by a
Museum expedition. For several months staff
paleontologists and their assistants have been
splitting the shale and charting the position and
orientation of all fossils to determine environ-
mental relations.

A MUSEUM VISITOR in the exhibition
halls may not be aware of how much
more there is to the process of accumulating
and presenting knowledge than is apparent in
the public displays. When I was informed
at Antioch College of my assignment to the
Museum for a "geology opening that in-
volved splitting shale," I anticipated a quiet
atmosphere, the presence of geological speci-
mens of all ages, and pleasant working asso-
ciates. All of these expectations were
realized, but the job was pervaded with a
special kind of excitement not foreseen.

Upon my arrival from the college in Yel-
low Springs, Ohio, I was directed to the third
floor of the Museum — a maze of hallways
broken by doors that lead to offices and lab-
oratories. Behind the walls of these rooms
are concealed thousands of specimens of all
descriptions seldom seen by any of the
Museum's millions of visitors. I was escorted
through these confusing corridors to a large
room where I received my first and, at the
time, dismaying view of "Mecca." The
floor was almost entirely covered by enor-
mous sheets of shale marked "Layer B."
On tables, walls, and even the ceiling were
charts, photographs, and odd mysterious
symbols. The decor was completed by a
few chairs, fluorescent lamps, and two instru-
ments that were frequently to prove their
essentiality — one a microscope, the other a
broom.

TASK APPEARS FORMIDABLE

The initial shock of this cluttered and un-
prepossessing atmosphere was dispelled by
the warm welcome of the group at work. I
was presented with somebody's lab coat and
directed to my place across a table from a
fellow Antioch student, Shirley Hale. I was
then shown specimens of common fossils and
the symbols used to indicate them and intro-
duced to the methodology of recording.
Finally, I was handed an ordinary but extra-
sharpened table knife and left to my still un-
certain devices. It was rather disconcerting
to learn that the entire fioorful of shale must
be split, block by block, into small pieces and

each fossil identified and represented by its
symbol upon a chart that is a scale reproduc-
tion of a large numbered slab.

After a few days in combat with a stubborn
block of shale I began to acquire a limited
vocabulary of the commoner fossils. For in-
stance, leggy knobs turn out to be Petrodi, a
form of skin-covering from a shark; a spiked,
curved, and corrugated triangle is a Listra-
canthus or fish spine; other fish remnants are
called Paleoniscoid. With a couple of weeks
of practice in shale splitting, I mastered the
technique of jabbing knives into the shale
instead of myself and, with many questions
and re-explanations, I learned to recognize a
nearly complete range of fossils for a partic-
ular level. The reasons for the procedures
employed and the gist of the conversation
around me gradually became intelligible.

Then my attention was attracted to the
characteristics of the scientists in charge of

Paleontological research in *'Mecca Laboratory":

Curators split shale with sharpened kitchen knives;

student aides from Antioch College wield brooms

for the advancement of science.

the project — Dr. Rainer Zangerl, Curator of
Fossil Reptiles, and Dr. Eugene S. Richard-
son, Jr., Curator of Fossil Invertebrates.
Both of these men work harder than anyone
on the project, and they supervise the rest of
us as well. It seemed to me that long months
of concentrated shale-splitting would cool
their ardor. I soon realized that their inter-
est and enthusiasm are sustained not only
because such labor and compiling of data
will result in an ecological picture of the age
and area in which the shale originated but
also because they are constantly on the look-
out for unusual specimens different from
any hitherto found.

scientists' REACTIONS

One soon discovers that different fossils
provoke various degrees of response. A
Petrodus, Listracanthus, or coprolite, unless
of abnormal proportions, is simply recorded
but not hailed aloud. A phyllocarid or a
fair-to-well-preserved fish or shark merits a
raised eyebrow. Cephalopods, brachiopods,
and the like may provoke an exclamation and
are sure to be handed around for examina-
tion. Discovery of any specimen of really

striking appearance, such as nearly complete
fishes or sharks, precipitates an immediate
scraping of chairs, a concerted rush upon the
fortunate finder, a debate on whether to un-
cover the fossil farther or to X-ray the block,
and a subsequent march en masse to the
X-ray machine and the darkroom.

Although unmoved by the most exasperat-
ing circumstances, the curators, one discov-
ers, are quite apprehensive that pieces may
not interlock properly when a chart of one
entire layer of shale is constructed by cutting
out photographs of the individual charts and
fitting them together. They are likewise
apprehensive lest they lose half of a complete
specimen under a section of quarry wall that
may not have been properly removed.
Finally, the curators are deeply concerned
about maintaining consistent progress on
the project.

To my surprise, I soon acquired the cur-
ators' zeal for the laborious and important
task. I likewise managed to assume the
typical attitude of forcing myself not to be
upset when an occasional particle of fossil
made recording difficult through failure to
fit the large block so that its position could
be determined.

This project, because it is a unique under-
taking, evokes a greater degree of enthusiasm
than one would usually find displayed over
work on a pile of shale. The fever of ac-
complishment, thrill of discovery, and grati-
fication of progress are contagious, quickly
pas.sing from our professional mentors to
newcomers like my classmates and myself.

CHILDREN'S PROGRAMS
CONTINUE IN APRIL

Five more free programs — one a puppet
show — remain to be given on Saturday morn-
ings during April. These entertainments
for children are presented by the James
Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond Founda-
tion at 10:30 A.M. in the James Simpson
Theatre. No tickets are required. Chil-
dren are welcome alone, accompanied by
adults, or in groups from schools, clubs, and
other centers. Following are the dates and
subjects:

April 2 — Some Favorite Animals
Also a cartoon

April 9 — El Navajo
Also a cartoon

April 16 — The Carnival of Insects

The Fisherman and His Wife
Two puppet plays, presented by Basil
Milovsoroff

April 23 — People Along the Mississippi
River
Also a cartoon

April 30 — Beaver Valley
Also a cartoon

April, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 7

Books

(All books reviewed in the Bulletin are
available in The Book Shop of the Museum.
Mail orders accompanied by remittance in-
cluding postage are promptly filled.)

AMERICAN SEASHELLS. By R. Tucker
Abbott. D. Van Nostrand Company,
Inc., New York, Toronto, and London,
1954. xiv4-541 pages, 24 color plates,
16 black-and-white plates, 100 figures.
$12.50.

If there is any need to demonstrate that
the popular interest in shells has increased
in the past decade, the comparatively high
number of popular and semiscientific books
on this subject that has been published
recently would be sufficient proof. Most of
the books on how to collect and to classify
shells are helpful. Some of them, particu-
larly the pocket books, are valuable in the
field. Other types are more useful at home.
None of them, however, is perfect, even to
the extent that perfection in this field is
possible.

American Seashells is almost an ideal
combination of very good illustrations and
solid facts presented in a text of everyday
but by no means colloquial language. Of
about 6,000 different kinds of shells found
on our American coasts, some 1,500 are
mentioned, comprising all the genera and
most of the species that the average collector
is likely to find on the beaches or in shallow
water. The descriptions are concise, and
geographical distribution, commercial im-
portance, and other facts of interest are
given in each case. There are hardly words
adequate to praise the beauty of the illus-
trations, both those in color and in black-
and-white. In these the Abbott book far
excels similar publications of the past few
years. American Seashells, however, might
have been even more useful to the student
if some kind of key had been provided to
help the beginner find the class, order, and,
perhaps, family to which a certain shell
belongs.

INTRODUCING SEASHELLS, A Color-
ful Guide for the Beginning Collector.

By R. Tucker Abbott. D. Van Nostrand
Company, Inc., New York, Toronto, and
London [1955]. 63 pages, 9 plates (5 in
color), many text-figures. $2.50.

The author's book on American Seashells
(see above) merited high praise, and so it is
not surprising that another publication by
the same writer should likewise be recom-
mended here. This booklet, in contrast to
the larger work, does not provide the student
with full knowledge of seashells but seeks to
attract interested laymen to their study.
Hence the text concentrates on general facts
and on how to collect, prepare, classify, and

exhibit seashells. This information, made
easily understandable by the simple language
and by the wonderful plates and figures in
the text, is presented as if to whet the appe-
tite of the novice for personal experience in a
promising new field of activity. We grant
that this is really a good appetizer, though,
unfortunately, in our opinion, a rather ex-
pensive one.

A FIELD GUIDE TO SHELLS OF THE
PACIFIC COAST AND HAWAII. By

Percy A. Morris. Houghton Mifflin Com-
pany, Boston, xx+220 pages, 40 illus-
trations (8 in color). Price $3.75.

This is the companion volume of the book
on Atlantic shells reviewed in the Bulletin
of November, 1951. It deals with shells of
the West Coast of the United States and of
the Hawaiian Islands. The book closely
resembles its Atlantic counterpart in format
and is attractively printed. There are many
good illustrations. However, I prefer those
in black-and-white to the color plates, which
look quite unnatural because of their over-
abundance of yellow.

A casual study indicates that the book
should serve well its purpose of introducing
the interested layman to the beauty and the
overwhelming diversity of the shells he can
pick up on beaches or dig up from beneath
shallow water. The descriptions of various
kinds of shells are neither too scientific nor
too popular in style, and the scientific names
used are, the author affirms, those currently
in use according to the rules of nomenclature.
Whether he is correct in this or not is, in my
opinion, a matter of no consequence in a book
of this kind, and even the scientist, who must
and will occasionally consult it, should not
be shocked by finding a name used that in
his view is not correct. At least, the names
given always permit the identification of a
species beyond any misunderstanding, and
that is what counts.

(All three reviews are by Dr. Fritz Haas,
Curator of Lower Invertebrates.)

Technical Publications

The following technical publications were
issued recently by Chicago Natural History
Museum :

Fieldiana: Zoology, Vol. 34, No. 30. The
Annellated Coral Snake, Micrurus annel-
latus Peters. By Karl P. Schmidt.
December 23, 1954. 7 pages, 2 illustra-
tions. 10c.

Fieldiana: Geology, Vol. 10, No. 20. Note
on an Eocene Crab, Harpactocarinus
mississippiensis Rathbun. By Eugene S.
Richardson, Jr. December 27, 1954. 5
pages, 4 illustrations, 25c.

MUSEUM AUDITOR RETIRES;
SUCCESSOR APPOINTED

Adelbert L. Stebbins, Auditor of the
Museum, who retired on pension effective
March 31, became a member of the Museum
staff in 1931. After serving for several years
in clerical capacities, he was a.ssigned in 1937
to the Auditor's office
as Bookkeeper. In
1948 he was promoted
to the position of
Assistant Auditor, and
in 1953 he became
Auditor. Mr. Stebbins
was born in Camasar-
aga. New York, but in
his early years his fam-
ily moved to the
Middle West, and he
graduated from high
school in Elburn, Illi-
nois. He joined the

United States Army in 1912, remained to
serve through World War I, was commis-
sioned a captain, and was transferred in 1919
to the Reserve. In civilian life, before com-
ing to the Museum, he was employed by
several firms in the Chicago area. Mr. Steb-
bins now plans to live in Clearwater, Florida,
where he recently purchased a home. He
has two sons in California, both of whom
served with the U. S. Marines during World
War II.

Robert A. Krueger, who recently was ap-
pointed Assistant Auditor, will succeed Mr.
Stebbins as head of the auditing office. An
alumnus of Northwestern University, Mr.
Krueger was employed by several industrial
firms before coming to the Museum.

A. L. Stebbins

Methods and devices to attract birds to
live in your garden are the subject of an
exhibit in Boardman Conover Hall (Hall 21).

Illinois Audubon Society Offers
Two Screen-Tours in April

Screen-tours will be presented on two
Sunday afternoons in April in James Simpson
Theatre of the Museum by the Illinois Audu-
bon Society. These lectures, accompanied
by color films, begin at 2:30 p.m.

"Mormonland," fourth Audubon presen-
tation in the current series, will be given on
April 3. The lecturer will be Dr. Alfred M.
Bailey, Director of the Denver Museum of
Natural History. His films cover a wide
range of contrasting regions from salt lake
and desert to mountains and deep-cleft can-
yons. The animals and plants of these
areas are shown in their habitats.

On April 24 the season's concluding screen-
tour will be "The Grass Forest," by Robert
C. Hermes, well-known artist and nature
photographer. In his unique films, he will
give his audience a "worm's-eye view" of the
world of tiny insects that dwell at our feet.

Admission is free, and the general public is
invited. Two reserved seats apiece for each
lecture are available to Members of the
Museum and of the Illinois Audubon Society
who present their membership cards before
2:25 p.m.

Page 8

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

April, 1955

FIVE SATURDAY LECTURES
TO BE GIVEN IN APRIL

The Museum's Spring Course for adults of
free lectures on science and travel will con-
tinue on Saturday afternoons throughout
April. The lectures, which are provided by
the Edward E. Ayer Lecture Foundation
Fund, are given in the James Simpson
Theatre at 2:30 P.M. The list of dates,
titles, and lecturers follows:

April 2 — Hong Kong, Bamboo Curtain
Colony

Phil Walker

April 9 — Jewels of the Pacific Coast

Julian Gromer

April 16 — The Holy Lands Today

Kenneth Richter

April 23 — Mexico

Willis Butler, Jr.

April 30 — Highlights of Australia

Allen Keast

No tickets are necessary for admission to
these lectures. A section of the Theatre is
allocated to Members of the Museum, each
of whom is entitled to two reserved seats.
Requests for these should be made in advance
by telephone (W Abash 2-9410) or in writing,
and seats will be held in the Member's name
until 2:25 o'clock on the lecture day.

Admission is restricted to adults because
accommodations are limited, but special free
motion-pictures for children are given on the
mornings of the same Saturdays under the
auspices of the Raymond Foundation.

PHONOGRAPH RECORDS

(Phonograph records renewed in the Bul-
letin are available in The Book Shop of the
Museum. Mail orders accompanied by re-
mittance including postage are promptly filled.)

WESTERN BIRD SONGS. A 78-r.p.m.
10-inch record. Cornell University Rec-
ords, Cornell University Press, May 1,
1954. $2.50.

AMERICAN BIRD SONGS. VoL 2, A

33J<^-r.p.m. 12-inch record. Cornell Uni-
versity Press, May 1, 1954. $7.75.

These records arrived at a very opportune
time for me. The second grade in the school
in the community where I live was studying
birds with the aid of Audubon Society
leaflets, industriously coloring outlines of
robins with crayons. After hearing the
records I lent them to the teacher to try on
her pupils. She is enthusiastic about them
as auxiliary teaching material and I shall
send them back to the school for further
sessions with another teacher.

The novelty of hearing bird songs from
a phonograph caused some preliminary
giggles, but soon the pupils were entranced.
Some recognized a few of the songs as
familiar. An immediate increase of interest
in birds in our neighborhood was evident.
But it took an unexpected form. The first
broods of young robins were just leaving
their nests. The younger children started
to round them up, intending to act the part
of foster parents, and it took firm remon-
strances of my wife to have them' returned
to the bushes where they're better off under
the care of their parents.

The first record is a collection of the
voices of ten familiar western birds recorded
by Dr. W. R. Fish. The second, the pub-
lishers say, makes available on a long-
playing record the voices recorded on the
76-r.p.m. records in the earlier album of the
same name. The voices of common birds
of gardens, roadsides, marshes, and lakes
are grouped according to habitats. Each is
announced by name with a short comment
by Dr. A. A. Allen.

Austin L. Rand
Curator of Birds

PLEASE NOTIFY MUSEUM
IF YOU'RE MOVING

Members of the Museum who
change residence are urged to notify
the Museum so that the Bulletin
and other communications may reach
them promptly.

Members going away for extended
periods may have Museum matter
sent to their temporary addresses.

GIFTS TO THE MUSEUM

Following is a list of the principal gifts
received during the past month:

Department of Anthropology:

From: Phillip H. Lewis, Chicago — 14 eth-
nological specimens, Lossu and Libba vil-
lages. New Ireland.

Department of Botany;

From: Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., De-
catur, 111. — 6 samples of soybean-oil-meal
products; Dr. Ellsworth P. Killip, Washing-
ton, D. C. — 172 phanerogams. Isle of Pines,
Cuba, and Florida Keys; U. S. Department
of Agriculture — seed of Glycine ussuriensis,
Stoneville, Mississippi.

Department of Zoology:

From: Lt. Col. Kenneth F. Burns, Fort
Sam Houston, Tex. — 6 bats; University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor — miscellaneous bones,
Guatemala; Royal Ontario Museum of
Zoology, Toronto — garter snake (neotype);
Shedd Aquarium, Chicago — seaturtle; Gor-
don R. Thurow, Bloomington, Ind. — 10
salamanders, Illinois.

EXPEDITION TO MEXICO

AND SOUTHWEST

A Museum expedition to collect reptiles,
amphibians, and small mammals in south-
western United States and northern Mexico
will get under way on April 12. Members of
the party will be Dr. Karl P. Schmidt, Chief
Curator of Zoology, D. Dwight Davis,
Curator of Vertebrate Anatomy, and Hymen
Marx, Assistant in the Division of Amphib-
ians and Reptiles. Arizona and New Mexico
will be the first areas where work will be
undertaken. The expedition, which is to be
in the field about six weeks, will experiment
with special techniques both in collecting
specimens and in photography.

NEW MEMBERS

(February 15 to March 15)

Associate Members

Richard M. Barancik, Mrs. Corina Melder
Collier, Joseph B. Hawkes, Joseph Regen-
stein, Jr., Benjamin Saks.

Annual Members

C. Prentiss Andrews, Arthur Bell, Vernon
J. Bert, Miss Grace Bittrich, Dr. Irving
Blumenthal, Robert H. Brannan, Benjamin
Bromberg, Dr. Rudolph Camino, Carl Cer-
venka, Dan J. Considine, Richard N. Conte,
Lester B. Converse, Edward E. Cowan,
Martin A. Culhane, J. A. Cullen, Charles C.
Dawes, E. E. EUies, Mrs. Benjamin F. Ellis,
Ralph E. Ellis, Dr. Harry H. Farber, Francis
S. Fellers, Mrs. Earl Finger, Miss A. Flem-
ming, Dr. Ray H. Freeark, Grange J. Glover,
Joseph Harrow, Edwin B. Hassler, W. B.
Henri, Kenneth V.'Hill, George D. Hingson,
John S. Holmes, Mrs. Ruth B. Howard,
Dr. Milton M. Kadin, Irving M. Karlin,
William P. Klein, Henry C. Kot, Dr. George
M. Kramer, Harry G. Kramer, Jr., Stanley
J. Liszka, Dr. Albert A. Loverde, Gerry
Moburg, G. Walker Morgan, Edward F.
Murphy, Michael P. Murphy, Mrs. Harry J.
O'Rourke, Thomas A. Patterson, Dr. David
A. Peckler, Norman J. Phelps, Joseph John
Potter, A. C. Randell, Mrs. Esther E. Rohn,
Dr. F. W. Rohr, Carl G. Schreyer, George E.
Simon, F. Gordon Smith, Mrs. Vaughan C.
Spalding, Jr., Mrs. Arthur I. Stephens, Dr.
Irving Swoiskin, Henry M. Thullen, Theo-
dore Tieken, Dr. Gerhardt von Bonin,
Charles Wadsworth, C. Ives Waldo, Jr.,
Leonard C. Weill, Mrs. John E. Wells, H. M.
Wies, Dr. Emanuel C. Wilhelm, Amos G.
Willis, Kenward T. Wood, Max Woolpy.

Visit Museum Book Shop
If You Like to Browse

An ever-larger variety of books on natural
history, children's books, and such mer-
chandise as Navaho silver jewelry, ivory
carvings by Alaska Indians, unique sou-
venirs, and toys may be found in the Book
Shop of the Museum. You are invited to
browse to your heart's content amid
pleasant surroundings.

PRINTED BY CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PRESS

Vol.26. No.5-May -1955

Chicago Natural
History Mus e unz

lite.J^"'

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

May, 1955

Chicago Natural History Museum

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893

Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago 5

Telephone: WAbash 2-9410

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lester Armour Henry P. Isham

Sewell L. Avery Hughston M. McBain

Wm. Mccormick Blair William H. Mitchell

Walther Buchen John T. Pirie, Jr.

Walter J. Cummings Clarence B. Randall

Joseph N. Field George A. Richardson

Marshall Field John G. Searle

Marshall Field, Jr. Solomon A. Smith

Stanley Field Louis Ware

Samuel Insull, Jr. John P. Wilson

OFFICERS

Stanley Field President

Marshall Field First Vice-President

Hughston M. McBain Second Vice-President

Joseph N. Field Third Vice-President

Solomon A. Smith Treasurer

Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary

John R. Millar Assistant Secretary

THE BULLETIN

EDITOR
Clifford C. Gregg Director of the Museum

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology

Theodor Just Chief Curator of Botany

Sharat K. Roy Chief Curator of Geology

Karl P. Schmidt Chief Curator of Zoology

MANAGING EDITOR
H. B. Harte Public Relations Counsel

ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Helen A. MacMinn Jane Rockwell

Members are requested to inform the Museum
promptly of changes of address.

COAPTATION IN SNAILS,

TURTLES AND ARMADILLOS

By KARL P. SCHMIDT
chief curator, department of zoology

U"r)HRAGMOSIS" is the ecological
^^ term for crawling into a hole and
pulling the hole in after one's self (as the
American colloquialism has it), as related in
an earlier article (Bulletin, March, 1955).
The phragmotic devices evolved in animal
bodies, like the bony heads of certain toads
and tree-frogs, by which animals close the
holes into which they retreat are quite evi-
dently related to a still more widespread
phenomenon. In this, the separate parts of
an animal's body (often the front and rear
end) have evolved to fit each other, as when
an animal rolls into a ball or when an animal
already protected by a shell develops the
capacity for closing the openings left when
head and limbs, or even the whole body, are
pulled in for concealment.

This kind of adaptation of separate parts
of the body by evolution is referred to as
coaptation. In a sense such evolution is only
a special case, though a conspicuous one, of
the interadaptation of structures and func-
tions in the bodies of all animals, which must
evolve as wholes, with the function of the
lungs adjusted to that of the heart and that
of the nervous system to every movement of
the body. Nevertheless, the very exact ad-
justment of one part of the external covering

of the body to fit against another part,
sometimes at the opposite end of the animal,
may be so striking and often so remarkable in
the details of its mechanical perfection that
the term coaptation is useful and is, in fact,
in current use to describe this kind of adap-
tation. It may be extended to apply even

TRAPDOOR OF SNAIL, CLOSED

Operculum attached to animal's foot-muscle by

which it may be retracted, as shown above, or opened.

On Pacific island beaches these were frequently mis-

taken for "cat's-cycs** by servicemen.

SNAIL'S TRAPDOOR REMOVED
Illustrating construction of protective shield and
showing why it might be mistaken for a gemstone.

to those plants that have movable parts, like
the clovers and other legumes whose leaves
fold up for the night.

MECHANICAL PRECISION

The extremes of mechanical perfection of
such adjustments may be especially notable
in insects and crustaceans, in which there is
a watch-like precision of fit of the movable
parts that connect with the hard external
covering. In such creatures a great number
of elements of the body-covering may be
modified to fit together when the over-all
adaptation is for rolling into a compact ball.
Rolling into a compact ball is a defensive
reaction in some kinds of sow-bugs (the
familiar little land crustaceans found in
damp places), in certain tropical millipedes,
and in various quite distinct groups of beetles.
There should perhaps be a term for "rolling

-THIS MONTH'S COVER-

"River found on a mountaintop
In a 'lost world' " would appro-
priately describe the scene depict-
ed on our cover. The photograph
was taken by Dr. Julian A. Steyer-
mark of the Department of Bot-
any at the spot where his expedi-
tion in Venezuela successfully
broke through jungle tangle and
rock barriers onto the summit of
Chimanta-tepui and stepped into
this weird landscape. The pic-
ture shows the Tirica River as it
flows across the unusually expan-
sive and plateau-like mountain-
top at an altitude of about 6,300
feet. The expedition pitched its
camp beside this river and for a
month worked in the surrounding
area collecting plants and zoo-
logical specimens. The banks of
the river are lined with many
peculiar rock formations. Cur-
ator Steyermark's account of the
expedition, from which he has
just returned, appears on page 3.

up into a ball," for this is a habit somewhat
different from the familiar retreat into a shell
of the mussels and snails, and different also
from the withdrawal of the heads and limbs
of turtles into their bony case.

Coaptation is often illustrated in various
stages of the evolution toward perfection in
animals that retreat into a shell. One of the
most familiar devices for closing the opening
in a protective shell is the operculum of
many different kinds of marine and fresh-
water snails. This may be a shield of horn-
like material, or it may be composed of the
same material as the shell. After World
War II, museums were showered with in-
quiries from servicemen about the "cat's-
eyes" they had picked up on the beaches of
the Pacific islands. These objects were the
shelly opercula of various kinds of marine
snails. An element of confusion was intro-
duced into these inquiries by the more proper
application of the term cat's-eye to a semi-
precious mineral that is often cut as a gem-
stone. The snail opercula, with their coiled
structure and bright colors, are ornamental;
but the inquirers had to be told that they
were not semiprecious. The now familiar
use of the term cat's-eye for the bright-col-
ored snail opercula does not seem to have
found its way into the dictionaries.

turtle's DEVICES

Less familiar instances of closing up a shell
by the co-ordinate evolution of different
parts of the body are to be found in turtles.
In almost every family of this reptilian order
some genus has carried the concealment of
{Continued on page 8, column 2)

May, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 3

RARE PLANTS AND ANIMALS DISCOVERED IN 'LOST WORLD'

By JULIAN A. STEYERMARK

CURATOR OF THE PHANEROGAMIC HERBARIUM

THAT MYSTERIOUS and awe-inspiring
area of Venezuela known as the "lost
world" can always be counted upon to pro-
vide adventures and misadventures as well as
an abundance of plants and animals for the
museum collector, including many species
hitherto unknown to science. On the 1954-

BACKBONE OF AN EXPEDITION
Some of the twenty Itidian porters required to transport the packs containing
about 5,000 pounds of provisions and equipment through jungles, over streams,
and up mountains for the botanical expedition to the Venezuelan '*Iost world.'*

55 joint expedition of Chicago Natural Hist-
ory Museum and New York Botanical
Garden, this land of rugged mountains,
rushing streams with many rapids, and
strange terrain did not fail to provide its
customary thrills and rigors, but it rewarded
the two participating institutions with no-
table collections exceeding even our expec-
tations when plans were being made.

Co-leader of the expedition was Dr. John
J. Wurdack. We sailed from Philadelphia
on December 23, 1954, on a Gulf Oil Com-
pany tanker, S. S. Cow, and arrived at
Puerto de La Cruz on December 30. Thanks
to the co-operation of officials of the Mene
Grande and Sinclair Oil companies, admit-
tance of our equipment into the country
was greatly facilitated. The paraphernalia
was trucked the next day across the llanos
to Ciudad Bolivar on the Orinoco River,
nearly 300 miles (by air) southeast of Cara-
cas. There food supplies for the next three
months were obtained.

What does an expedition live on? Our
provisions included such staples as 100
pounds of black beans, 150 pounds of rice,
200 pounds of lentils, large quantities of
casabe (chief breadstuff of the Indians who
were to accompany us), and large quantities
of salt, coffee, native brown-sugar, onions,
cereals, powdered milk, canned meats, and
sardines.

We were ready the next day to fly to
the airport of Uriman on the CaronI River
with our load — nearly 5,000 pounds split
up into 70 packs, which included besides the
tons of food, a variety of trade goods, gear
for camping, for cooking, and for collecting,
old newspapers for pressing botanical speci-
mens, an outboard motor for canoes, and
drums of gasoline for it as well as for fueling
the stoves used to
dry plant-specimens.
Then with a thud came
news that because of
local observance of the
coming New Year's
weekend, the cargo
plane that was to trans-
port our impedi-
menta could not leave
Ciudad Bolivar until
January 7; so we were
faced with a week's
delay. Concern over
this developed into
other worries about de-
tails of the expedition,
particularly about
whether I could ob-
tain the invaluable
services of Sabas Car-
dona, chief guide, and
the other Indians who
accompanied me on
my expediton in 1953
to the same destina-
tion, the mountain of Chimanta-tepui.

From Uriman I set out with a native
worker on an arduous three-day trek to
Uruyen, about 50
miles north, to sign up
Sabas and his crew.
After crossing numer-
ous streams and
mountains, we reach-
ed this village, the
home of Sabas, on the
night of a fiesta. I
joined in the dances,
and out of respect for
the Indians' customs,
tasted kachiri, a lav-
ender-colored drink,
made largely from the
fermented root of the
same casabe plant (the
tapioca-yielding man-
ihot) that the Indians
use for bread flour.
The next day Sabas
rounded up friends
and relatives from
surrounding villages
to make up the party
of twenty Indians

that I needed, and the day after that we
began the long trek back to Uriman.

On January 14 our expedition started up

the Caroni River. This involved portaging
all the equipment around the 200-foot-high
waterfall of Techine-merti, then proceeding
past the Indian village of Kon-quen and up
the Tirica River to the original campsite of
our 1953 trip at the base of the mountain.
Three dugout canoes were used to bring the
cargo upstream to base camp, and several
trips had to be made to relay the three-
months' supply of food and other equipment
from Uriman to base camp at an elevation
of 1,700 feet. This required more than a
week. Then, while the old trail was re-cut
to allow the cargo to pass through more
easily, Sabas, four other Indians, Wurdack,
and I went ahead to see how practical it
might be to reach the summit via the un-
completed trail started by Sabas at the end
of my previous trip.

Our flight on January 7 from Ciudad
Bolivar had carried us over the summit of
Chimanta-tepuf, and we had seen broad
level stretches traversed by meandering
streams. We knew, therefore, that if Sabas'
uncompleted new trail headed in the right
direction, paralleling the course of the Tirica
River, we should reach this summit and be
able to establish a campsite along the river.
As good fortune proved, Sabas' trail took
us through the tangled scrub forest to a
point where the Indians could climb trees
and take direction sights. On January 27
we were within sight of our goal. A few
more hours of trail-cutting on January 28
brought us above another waterfall. Here
we crossed the river where it had channeled
and gouged out peculiar rock formations
bordered by white sandy beaches.

WATERFALL NAMED FOR MUSEUM BOTANIST
This is Steyermark-meru or Julian A. Steycrmark Falls, thus named by Indians
of the "lost world" in honor of the explorer on an expedition in 1953. Photo-
graphed for first time by 1954-55 expedition to the same area.

At last we reached the summit and in a
short time established a campsite on a level
open stretch of white sand surrounded by

.« • ^rr^

Page U

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

May, 1955

myriad kinds of peculiar plants. Here Wur-
dack and I stayed, assisted by Sabas, while
the other four Indians returned to help
carry the remainder of the 70 pieces of cargo
that were gradually being brought up.
Finally, three weeks after having left Uri-
man, all the cargo arrived. The elevation
at this point was 6,300 feet. Temperature
went down to a low of 47 degrees at night
and reached a high of 75 degrees in the
shade during the day (47 degrees is the very
lowest temperature ever recorded from
the summits of any of the mountains of the
"lost world"). We found ourselves sur-
rounded by weird rock-formations and bluffs
on all sides towering to still higher portions
of the summit that reached an altitude of
7,500 feet. We kept eight of the Indians
as regular workers until the end of the trip,
sending back the twelve others who had
assisted in bringing the cargo up the moun-
tain.

From then on our collecting began in
earnest. Trails were made in many direc-
tions to reach various parts of the extensive
mountain-mass that is about 50 miles long
and 40 miles wide. We explored as many
sections as possible, sometimes remaining
fully four days away from our main camp.
We found uncharted waterfalls and un-
mapped rivers and their tributaries, and we
took compass readings. We found our-
selves adding significant geographical details
to our data about this mountain as we
explored different sections each day. New
plants were discovered along every new trail
traversed.

There were long stretches of open swampy
savanna alternating with dry rocky slopes
full of peculiar sandstone and quartz for-
mations. There were numerous rifts and
narrow chasms in the rocks that descended
perpendicularly for a hundred feet or more.
These often forced us into long detours.
Some, however, were narrow enough to
jump across. Sphagnum bogs with peculiar .
plants often lined parts of the river valley
that seemed to wind endlessly across the
summit. We reached edges of the escarp-
ment of portions of the mountain that broke
off into mile-high chasms and canyons of
great length and magnitude. In such deeply
eroded sections of Chimant4-tepui, the scen-
ery was truly of the most spectacular type,
and we could see how the various lobes of
the great mountain stretched out from here
for miles and miles of unexplored fantastic
areal surface.

Wherever we traveled on the summit of
the main-central portion of ChimantS-tepuf,
we could see miles and miles of meanderings
of the Tirica River and its tributaries as
they flowed over swampy savannas or
through rocky openings to distant parts of
the giant mountain. This was the most
unusual feature of Chimanta-tepui — that
the main section of its summit should be
well-watered by a good-sized stream, the

Tirica River. This, indeed, was a real dis-
covery, as previous maps of the mountain
failed to reveal any stream running over the
summit. Although some streams have been
found on the summits of a few of the other
mountains of the "lost world" section of
Venezuela, Chimantd-tepui is the first on
which such an extensive river-system has
been found traversing the summit. This
has provided all sorts of habitats for swamp
and aquatic plants and animals. Water-
striders, water beetles, and many other kinds
of aquatic insects were noted and collected.
The cool valleys with rivers occurring on
the summit, ascending to 7,500 feet, were
the habitats also for a number of Andean
species of groundpine (Lycopodium) , of a
type found in the high mountains of Ecua-
dor, Peru, and Colombia, and other Andean
genera such as St. John's wort (Hypericum),
cherry (Prunus), Weinmannia, holly (Ilex),
various members of the heath family in-
cluding huckleberry (Vaccinium), Baccharis,
Viburnum, sedges such as Carex, an Andean
tree (Laplacea) of the Camellia family,
Cestrum, Aegiphila, and many others. This
vast assemblage of plants of the cooler
temperate climate was intermingled with
other genera of plants known only from the
mountains of the "lost world" area.

ANIMAL SPECIMENS COLLECTED

Although we climbed and hiked many
miles each day, bringing back marvelous
specimens, we realized that only the surface
aspects of this remarkable summit could be
touched within the time at our disposal.
We could remain only until March 2, and
then would have to start down the long
trail again. During the six weeks on the
summit, we collected 1,500 different species
of plants, totaling about 10,000 duplicate
specimens. Photographs were taken of var-
ious plants and details of scenery to add
to the geographic knowledge of the moun-
tain. Remarkable zoological discoveries
also were made during these six weeks. A
small catfish was found in the river near
our summit campsite at 6,300 feet, and
specimens were collected for the Museum.
This is the first record of any fish ever taken
from the summit of any of the mountains
of the "lost world." Other interesting col-
lections made on the summit were lizards,
frogs, snakes of several kinds, including a
distinct species of poisonous fer-de-lance
(mapanare), snails, termites, various other
insects, spiders, centipedes, millipedes,
earthworms, a species of grebe, a coati
mundi, and a white-eared opossum. The
two mammals are the largest fur-bearers
found on the summit. Bats were seen in
flight, but we were unable to snare any in
our bat net. Several small birds were
collected, two of them new to the Museum's
collection.

Although there were numerous rainy days,
the weather was in our favor during most

of the trip, expediting travel and collecting.
Altogether, about two weeks were required
on the return trip from the time our cargo
left the summit of the mountain until we
all reached Uriman on March 17. Here
everything was packed for the trip by plane
back to Ciudad Bolivar, where a truck
carried the expedition's collections to Puerto
de La Cruz. On March 25 the S. S. Las
Piedras sailed with the treasures of Chi-
manta-tepui aboard, arriving in Philadelphia
on March 30. Half of the botanical speci-
mens will be deposited with New York
Botanical Garden and half with Chicago
Natural History Museum. Many new
species were found. A joint botanical re-
port by the two institutions will be published
eventually, encompassing the results ob-
tained by this expedition and by those
conducted separately by us in 1953.

Director's Annual Report
Ready for Members

All Members of the Museum will soon
receive their copies of the Annual Report
for 1954 of the Director to the Board of
Trustees, which has just been published by
Chicago Natural History Museum Press.
It is a volume of 146 pages and contains
24 illustrations. All phases of the Mu-
seum's activities are covered by Colonel
Clifford C. Gregg, Director — expeditions,
research, accessions, new exhibits, building
maintenance, etc.

Mammals of the Sea

An especially attractive array of sea mam-
mals, with painted backgrounds and built-up
scenes representing their habitats, is to be
seen in Hall N. One group shows Pacific
walruses on an arctic ice-floe lighted by the
midnight sun. Equally impressive are the
elephant seals, largest of all seals, on the
beach of Guadalupe Island and the giant
northern sea-lions of the coast of Washing-
ton. Other mammals are Pacific seals (small-
est of earless seals), northern fur seals in the
Pribilof Islands, the narwhal, and a pair of
Florida sea cows. A representation of the
snow and ice of the Antarctic provides the
setting for specimens of Weddell's seal
collected by the Second Byrd Antarctic
Expedition.

Devotees of the current do-it-yourself
trends in making furniture and other useful
household articles in home workshops will
find the exhibits in Charles F. Millspaugh
Hall (North American Woods) and the Hall
of Foreign Woods (Halls 26 and 27) of
special interest. Here they may study the
characteristics of different woods in order
to select those most suitable to a particular
purpose or design.

May, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 5

SPARROWS JOIN EXODUS
FROM CITY LIFE

By AUSTIN L. RAND

CURATOR OF BIRDS

THE FLIGHT of city dwellers to the
suburbs has been going on long enough
for sociologists to write accounts of its
influence on the social structure of the
nation, for builders to devise a prefabricated
house that takes little more time to put up
than to have a well-built martin house made
and installed, and for economists to view
with alarm the tax situation in the cities.

House sparrows have changed, too. They
used to be concentrated in the cities. This
was so noticeable that old ecology textbooks
used the sparrow as an example of an animal
whose population density correlated directly
with the density of human population. But
it's no longer true.

For the last few years I've been noting
the situation in Chicago. On Michigan
Avenue, on the edge of Grant Park, and on
the South Side where the buildings are
spaced out a little there are sparrows. But
they've gone from the heart of Chicago.
I've seen none in the Loop. There are
pigeons, yes. On Van Buren Street and
about the La Salle Street Station there are
scores of them. Sometimes the flocks
number a hundred or more. Sometimes I
see them looking for scraps in the alleys,
sometimes they're getting a good feed of
grain that some kind-hearted birdlover has
poured out for them (I've wondered what
influence the proximity of the Grain Ex-
change of the Board of Trade may have on
this), and sometimes they're cadging pea-
nuts from the passengers at the elevated
stations. There's evidently food in plenty
for pigeons, but it doesn't suit the sparrows.

THE AUTO DID IT

The motor car has made suburban living
possible. It has made feasible super-
markets, drive-in theatres, and homes re-
mote from public transportation. I know
people who work in the city who drive 10
or 15 miles to get to their morning train
that takes them cityward.

It was likewise the motor vehicle that
caused the shift in the sparrow population
out of the city. But the factors at work
reflect a different aspect of the change.
Before motor transport, horse-drawn ve-
hicles were the standard transportation in
the city. Where there were horses there
was waste grain in abundance, and it
supported a dense sparrow population in
the centers of cities. With the replacement
of horses by motors, the sparrows' food
supply disappeared, and the sparrows dis-
appeared or became scarce in the cities.

There are lots of sparrows in the suburbs,
visiting bird feeding-stations and picking up
scraps, but for real sparrow concentration
one must go a little farther out where people
are raising pigs and feeding them well on a

special ground-grain diet. About such feed
lots I've seen hundreds of sparrows in a win-
ter afternoon. The wheat fields in late sum-
mer are rich feeding grounds, too, and also
we find sparrows spreading out during the
summer even to the picnic grounds on the
Lake Michigan beaches. But with winter
they must withdraw to the feed lots in order
to survive.

CORRELATE WITH HOGS

The ecology textbooks will have to revise
their correlations about house sparrows.
They will have to write that after the
introduction of the house sparrow into North

America and before the widespread in-
troduction of the automobile into our
culture, the sparrows' population density
varied directly with the density of one kind
of domestic animal, the horse. With the
wide use of motor cars, the sparrows' pop-
ulation density suffered a shift, and now it
correlates with the density of another
domestic animal, the hog.

In reading over the above I realize that
I may have given the impression that the
suburban sparrow commutes, catching the
8:05 each morning for the city and returning,
weary, on the 6:10. This is not so. There may
be slight seasonal shifts and a greater concen-
tration of sparrows about food lots and
villages in the winter, but the suburban
sparrows are suburban twenty-four hours
a day.

STAFF NOTES

John R. Millar, Deputy Director, will be
a speaker on "Careers in Museum Work"
on a program to be given Saturday, May

14, at 3 P.M. over WBBM-TV Dr.

Theodore Just, Chief Curator of Botany,
recently conducted a seminar for the de-
partment of botany at the University of
Illinois in Urbana .... Dr. B. E. Dahlgren,
Curator Emeritus of Botany, has returned
from Cuba where he has been continuing the
collecting and study of palms .... Loren P.
Woods, Curator of Fishes, recently lectured
on cave fishes at the annual convention of
the National Speleological Society held at
Natural Bridge, Virginia.

EL SALVADOR BIRD BOOK
BY MUSEUM WRITERS

El Salvador has just attained the distinc-
tion of being the only Central American
country with a guidebook to its bird life.
The generally increasing interest in science
found expression in El Salvador in 1950
with the establishment of a research station,
Instituto Tropical de Investigaciones Cienti-
ficas de la Universidad de El Salvador. In
support of this new research project, Chicago
Natural History Museum sent several mem-
bers of its scientific staff to carry on in-
vestigations there. They were Dr. Sharat
K. Roy, Chief Curator of Geology, who is
now in El Salvador again investigating
volcanoes; the late Dr. Norman C. Fassett,
of the University of Wisconsin, who was spon-
sored by the Museum in a study of aquatic
plants; and Dr. Austin L. Rand, Curator
of Birds, accompanied by Stanley Rand,
who studied birds.

One of the early fruits of the co-operation
is the bird guide, in Spanish, entitled Manual
de las Aves de El Salvador, by Curator Rand
and Melvin A. Traylor, Research Associate
in Birds, which was published recently by
Universidad de El Salvador. The basic
research in El Salvador had, of course,
already been done by A. J. van Rossem and
was published in 1938 by the Museum in a
volume for the specialist. This new Man-
ual, which carries the work one stage further,
was prepared for the general reading-public
of El Salvador.

The Manual, arranged in systematic
order, provides keys for the identification
of members of each bird family. Under
each form is a description, a paragraph
about the young, and notes on identification
and range — all of this the work of Traylor.
A summary of each bird's life-history and
finally a word-sketch of the bird in its
habitat based on van Rossem, other litera-
ture, and first-hand experience in the field
are by Curator Rand. The manuscript was
translated from English into Spanish in
San Salvador. The illustrations, by Doug-
las E. Tibbitts, Museum Staff Illustrator,
are reproduced from Associate Curator
Emmet R. Blake's Birds of Mexico. The
book, which was printed by offset lithog-
raphy, is bound in paper (308 pages, 7Ji
by 9J^ inches).

"Highlights Tours" Offered Daily

Free guide-lecture tours are offered
daily except Sundays under the title
"Highlights of the Exhibits." These tours
are designed to give a general idea of the
entire Museum and its scope of activities.
They begin at 2 p.m. on Monday through
Friday and at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Special tours on subjects within the range
of the Museum exhibits are available Mon-
days through Fridays by advance request.

Page 6

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

May, 1955

'ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN'
OF THE HIMALAYAS

By ROBERT L. FLEMING

FIELD ASSOCIATE, DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY

Dr. Fleming has given notable collections of
Asiatic animals to the Museum. As an
American mission-school supervisor in India
he has been able to devote several months each
year to his avocation as naturalist and has
collected for the Museum in the Himalayas
during various periods from 1938 to 195^..

WHEN I told about my Nepal bird
work in the Bulletin (December,
1954), I said nothing about the "Abominable
Snowman." Actually I had written a para-
graph on the subject, for accounts of travels
in the Himalayas seem to be incomplete
without some mention of this Snowman.
But the subject had seemed so overdone that
I left it out. Since then, however, I've seen
references and speculations about the Abom-
inable Snowman and been asked so many
questions that I've written the following.
The editors of the Journal of the Bombay
Natural History Society (August-December,
1954, pp. 594-598) have summarized the
facts and theories about this Abominable
Snowman:

(1) Only one eyewitness report is re-
corded— that of N. A. Tombazi, who writes
that he had a fleeting glimpse of an upright
figure, first taken for a man (later reported
as a Snowman), dark but without clothes,
in a glade between dwarf rhododendrons in
a Sikkim valley. The creature left tracks
similar in shape to those of a man but only
6 to 7 inches long. Tombazi conjectures
that what he saw was a wandering man,
perhaps a pious Buddhist ascetic, mortify-
ing himself in the utter desolation of high
places.

(2) Eric Shipton, the Himalaya climber,
reports footprints 12J/^ inches long in the
snow at an elevation of 12,000 feet, tracks
that were considered by authorities at the
British Museum to be monkey tracks.

(3) There are stories in Tibet of the
Yeti, as the local people call the Abominable
Snowman, playing in the snow {Yeti are
said to kill and skin yaks and plant the horns
in the ground).

(4) There are additional hearsay reports
of seeing Yeti. One Yeti was described as
five feet tall, covered with reddish hair and
having a conical head. Another was said
to have been seen walking on all fours,
screaming, sometimes standing up on its
hind legs and scratching its chest. A living
Yeti being kept in a zoo at Shigatse, Tibet,
was reported (news of a zoo at Shigatse is
more fantastic than that of the existence
of a Yeti, according to Lama Angarika Gov-
inda, who knows the area). A giant figure
was seen ambling along a railway track in
the outskirts of Siliguri — this Yeti, knocking
at a door and being mistaken for Yama, the
God of Death, left footprints in the mud

14 or 15 inches long and 8 inches wide.
Other reports ascribe a "peculiar whistling
note" to the Yeti.

(5) A "scalp," said to be of a Yeti and
used by the Lamas of Gompa as a leather
cap in rituals, was seen by Navnit Parikh's
party and by Dr. R. C. Evans, and a single
hair taken from it was sent to Dr. L. A.
Hausman, of New Jersey, an authority on
hairs of all kinds. His report indicated that
the hair had been dyed and that the "scalp"
could well be an artifact.

(6) The recent Daily Mail (London)
expedition in search of the Abominable
Snowman was unsuccessful.

From the above it is obvious that evidence
for the Abominable Snowman is composite:
the footprints may be human; they may be
the tracks of bears that live above timber-
line; they may be tracks of monkeys that
live in the higher forests. Reports of the
creature may be rooted in a belief in the
supernatural; they may in part be manu-
factured.

My own experience with the Abominable
Snowman is slight. I've climbed to the
edges of the permanent snowfields and have
seen no sign of it. My closest contact was
in Kathmandu, where a year ago last winter
I saw the little motor-car bustling about
with "Abominable Snowman Expedition"
painted on its sides — it was part of the
expedition from London to investigate the
matter. As far as I can learn, results have
been slight.

Under the influence of museum thinking
I've come to believe that we should accept
the existence of animals only if actual
examples can be examined. Disregarding
secondhand evidence about the Abominable
Snowman, we can only say that there is
something living in the high Himalayas
that makes tracks. These tracks resemble
human footprints but are larger or smaller.
They also resemble bear tracks, and they
also resemble monkey tracks. Tracks in
the snow become distorted and enlarged by
the hot sun. Taxonomy based on tracks
only is unlikely to be sound.

Until we get definite evidence to the
contrary I think the safest course is to
assume that one of the animals that could
have made these tracks did make them:
man, monkey, or bear.

head are withdrawn through separate open-
ings, each of which has a separate valvular
closure.

Rolling into a ball that is tightly closed by
the meeting of the front and rear ends of an
armored shell is conspicuously illustrated by
the little three-banded armadillo abundant'
on the plains of Brazil and Argentina. The

COAPTATION-

(Continued from page 2)

the limbs and of the head and neck to a more
than ordinary degree by the development of
hinges at various points in the shell. These
make it possible to close the front lobe of the
plastron (the lower shell), the rear lobe, both
ends of the plastron by separate hinges, both
ends by a single hinge, and in one instance by
a crude hinge at the rear of the carapace (the
upper shell). In a remarkable series of
genera of soft-shelled turtles, the limbs and

PORTABLE PROTECTIVE SHELTER

The three-banded armadillo of South America offers

an illustration of coaptation principles.

nine-banded armadillo that reaches the
southern United States is often spoken of as
if it habitually "rolled up into a ball." In
truth, this form represents only a primitive
stage in the ball-rolling habit, and one must
see the three-banded Tolypeutes to appre-
ciate the great advance it has made in this
adaptation.

In the three-banded armadillo the three
bands at the middle of the body form an
effective hinge by which the solid front and
rear shells can be brought together until
their lower edges meet and the limbs and
belly are completely hidden. The half
round hole for the short tail and the similar
opening for the head are thus brought to-
gether on one side of the armored sphere.
This last oval opening is neatly closed by the
juxtaposition of two bony wedge-shaped
shields, respectively on the upper side of the
tail and the top of the head. These wedges
lie head to point so as to fit the opening with
remarkable precision.

Coaptation in varying degrees pervades all
animate creation. The phenomenon serves
to emphasize the basic biological principle
that the factors involved in the evolution of
animal structures only rarely escape from
the dominance of the whole to develop into
the bizarre.

Visiting Hours Extended
for Summer Season

Effective May 1 and continuing through
September 5 (Labor Day) visiting hours at
the Museum are extended by one hour.
The Museum will be open daily, including
Sundays and holidays, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
At the end of this period, hours will revert
to 9 A.M.-5 P.M.

May, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 7

Books

PROGRESS IN PACIFIC RESEARCH LABORATORY

(All books reviewed in the Bulletin are
available in The Book Shop of the Museum.
Mail orders accompanied by remittance in-
eluding postage are promptly filled.)

WORLD OUTSIDE MY DOOR. By Olive
Bown Goin. The Macmillan Company,
New York. 184 pages. Illustrated. Price
$3.50.

It is the charm of elementary studies in
natural history that they are made for their
intrinsic interest, not even for the further-
ance of science with a capital "S," which, in
fact, they may accomplish. The simple nat-
ural history that begins in one's own garden
and backyard goes back to Linnaeus him-
self, as anyone may discern if he visits
Linnaeus' summer home at Hammarby.
Linnaeus became involved in the larger work
of painting in the outlines of the vast pano-
rama of the Systema Naturae, and thus it
fell to Linnaeus' contemporary, Gilbert
White, through his Natural History and
Antiquities of Selborne to found the school of
homely and local natural history, with its
strong alliance on the one hand with liter-
ature and on the other with the more
advanced studies in botany and zoology.

America has not lacked its practitioners of
the natural history of the home locale, and I
am myself happy to acknowledge a debt to
the influence of Anna Botsford Comstock
and of Frank E. Lutz. In the Chicago
region we are proud of Edwin Way Teale and
regretful that we could not keep him to ful-
fill this role in the Middle West. In Olive
Bown Goin we welcome a Florida version of
the beginning of a Selborne, in which the
fortunate setting of northern Florida for
dooryard observations is new.

Mrs. Goin, who has a naturalist-husband,
has touched on an occasional scientific prob-
lem, such as fluctuation of populations and
those details of the lives of her tree-frogs
that are too likely to be neglected by more
professional naturalists. Still, I feel that the
greatest merit of her admirable little book is
that she has set forth the charm of nature-
study as a family enterprise, in which the
youngest children may participate, and in
which husband and wife may alternate, and
on occasion join hands.

World Outside My Door is recommended to
parents and to prospective parents as a guide
to a practical and effective introduction of
children to science, to the scientific method,
and to orderly thinking. Little more equip-
ment is needed than a recording thermometer
and a notebook, though I should add a rain
gauge. Perhaps most important of all, the
children may glimpse something of the value
of pure science, something of the "divine
curiosity" that infuses science with its spe-
cial kind of non-selfish objectivity. The

Rapid progress is being made in prepara-
tion of the new Pacific Research Laboratory
at the Museum, and only a few more months
remain before it reaches completion. Al-
ready some 10,000 ethnographic specimens
from Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia,

MASKED MEN HANDLE POISONliU MASKS
Roger T. Grange, Assistant in Anthropology (left), and Robert Lamb, Antioch
College student, transfer grotesque headgear used by the Sulka people of Mel'
anesia to the poison room in the new Pacific Research Laboratory of the Mu-
seum. As the specimens are moved to their location they are checked, cleaned,
and often repaired. The laboratory was established to achieve maximum effi-
ciency in handling, preservation, and study of collections.

Australia, Indonesia, the Malay Peninsula,
Madagascar, and the Philippines have been
transferred to their new home on the ground
floor of the Museum.

Transfer of the collections from fourth
floor storerooms began last June when all
specimens were checked, cleaned, and re-
paired if necessary. Before the laboratory
is ready, 100 exhibit cases in Hall G must

be stripped and their contents moved to
the new location.

The laboratory, which will contain a
storeroom, workroom, and poison room, will
make available for study and research one
of the world's most important reference
collections in this field.
Included in the
storeroom's contents
is one of the world's
largest collections of
Melanesian specimens.
Separating the work-
room from the store-
room is an iron gate to
safeguard the collec-
tions from possible
vandalism or mishan-
dling. Catalogue cards
will be kept so that
all specimens are easily
accessible to persons
wishing to examine
them. Much of the
material has been ac-
cumulating for a long
time — some speci-
mens date back to the
1890's.

E. D. Hester, hold-
er of the Thomas J.
Dee fellowship for
highly specialized
research projects, is
in charge of the pro-
ject, which is receiving material aid from
the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthro-
pological Research and the Philippine
Studies Program. The latter is financed by
the Carnegie Corporation of New York and
is conducted by the University of Chicago,
Newberry Library (Ayers Collection), and
this Museum. Mr. Hester is associate
director of the Philippine Program.

difference between pure science and technol-
ogy is too little emphasized in the modern
world and too little understood. An under-
standing of the difference and an understand-
ing of the ethical values of pure science will
be of vital importance to that new generation
of human beings with whom Mrs. Goin as
parent-naturalist and I as museum naturalist
are concerned.

Kakl p. Schmidt
Chief Curator of Zoology

Technical Publication

The latest technical publication issued by
Chicago Natural History Museum is:

Fieldiana: Geology, Vol. 10, No. 21.
Fauna of the Vale and Choza: 10; Trime-
rorhachis: Including a Revision of Pre-Vale
Species. By Everett Claire Olson. March
30, 1955. 50 pages, 15 illustrations. 85c.

Artifacts of Early Indians
Collected in Louisiana

Two strata pits in one of the earthworks
near the large mound of the Indians who
lived at the Poverty Point site in Louisiana
from about 800 to 400 B. c. were excavated
last month on a field trip conducted by
George I. Quimby, Curator of North Ameri-
can Archaeology and Ethnology. A large
assortment of cultural objects was obtained
for addition to the Museum's anthropologi-
cal collections. The famed site is in West
Carroll Parish in the northeastern part of
the state. Curator Quimby worked in an
area in the south end of the site. He was
granted use of the facilities of the American
Museum of Natural History's expedition,
which is undertaking intensive investiga-
tions in the northern half. The Poverty
Point site is archaeologically unique.

Page 8

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

May, 1955

'TRAVEL EXCURSIONS'
FOR YOUNGSTERS

A number of children's programs — "jour-
neys" to foreign lands via the Museum —
are currently in progress under the guidance
of the Raymond Foundation staff. Chil-
dren who complete four journeys in one year
will be officially honored by the Museum as
"Museum Travelers." The first journey
offered in 1955 was the journey to Africa.
It was called "Listen to the Drums" and
started officially on March 5 with the
opening of the Saturday-morning movie
series for children. A special exhibit of
drums and other African material was
the starting point for this journey. The
next journey will be in July and August.
These journeys are open to all children and
may be taken on weekdays, Saturdays, or
Sundays. Children may travel alone or
with their families or friends. The journeys
are given four times a year: during March
and April, July and August, October and
November, and December and January.

EXPEDITION MAKE-BELIEVE

Another type of journey was offered on
April 16 to Brownie Scouts (junior members
of the Girl Scouts). More than 800 Brownie
Scouts, leaders, and mothers started on this

'JAM SESSION'
Getting into the "swing" of things African by sam-
pling the sound of some native drums are (left to
right) Bobby, Ingrid. and Reynold Stephan of
Arlington Heights and John Lawrence of Highland
Park. Exhibit in background is destination of
''African Journey," first of four "Museum Trav-
eler's" excursions for children conducted by the
Museum's Raymond Foundation staff.

"expedition" by attending the morning
program for all children in James Simpson
Theatre of the Museum (Basil Milovsoroff's
puppet shows). Following this, the Brown-
ies "traveled" via Museum exhibits to China
to see the Chinese shadow figures, to Java
to see the Javanese pupptets, and finally
back to the United States to see the kachina
dolls of the Southwest Indians. But that
isn't all. The Brownies follow up this ex-

pedition with reading and group activities
for a month in their individual Brownie
troop-meetings. Those troops that com-
plete successfully the requirements for this
expedition will receive certificates on June
1 signed by Colonel Clifford C. Gregg,
Director of the Museum. The expeditions for
Brownie Scouts are open to all Brownies and
are given once a year.

University Honors Curator

Dr. Julian A. Steyermark, Curator of the
Phanerogamic Herbarium, has been award-
ed the Alumni Citation of Washington
University, St. Louis, "in recognition of
outstanding achievements and services
which reflect honor upon Washington
University." Curator Steyermark is one
of the first alumni of Washington University
to be accorded this honor, awards of which
were instituted this year. He was a member
of the liberal arts class of 1929, and he
pursued further studies in the graduate
school of arts and sciences in 1930 and 1933.
He has been a member of the staff of the
Museum's Department of Botany since 1937
and has conducted a number of expeditions.
An account of his latest expedition to the
"lost world" of Venezuela, from which he
returned last month, appears in this issue
of the Bltj.£TIN.

NEW MEMBERS

(March 16 to April 15)

Associate Members

Mrs. Scammon Barry, David '^Golber,
Rudolph Kelemen, Robert H. Kent, William

B. Mcllvaine

Sustaining Member

C. R. Jonswold

Annual Members

Miss Lucile M. Beckstrom, E. O. Boe,
Mrs. Hedwig F. Brann, Edmund L. Burke,
Herbert R. Carpenter, Mrs. E. Bartholomay
Chapin, William F. Conlon, Dr. Vincent A.
Costanzo, Jr., Ralph Cowan, Ben T. Crane,
George M. Crane, Mrs. Jerome H. Debs,
Miss Alvertta Drake, William N. Erickson,
Earle C. Faulkner, Lafayette Fisher, Dr.
James F. Fleming, John Freeman, Philip S.
Harper, L. J. Hartigan, Dr. K. J. Heben-
streit, Frederick Herrschner, James J. Hill,
Dr. Maurice M. Hoeltgen, Edwin E. Hokin,
Gerald HoUins, Dr. Imre E. Homer, Mrs.
Willis O. Hyde, W. G. T. Hyer, James A.
Jensen, Frank S. Kanelos, Meyer Katz, Mrs.
Ruth Kegel, Edward C. Kent, Frank B.
Kozlik, Rico B. Krehl, Mrs. Marie Kuchar,
J. E. Levering, Warren H. Lieb, T. W. Lietz,
Mrs. Mason A. Loundy, William G. Loven-
thal, Sidney W. Mandel, Alvah T. Martin,
Paul H. Mesenbrink, Dr. Cecelia E. Miller,

C. E. Nelson, O. C. Peterson, Herbert F.
Philipsbom, Frank J. Riha, Harold L. Sam-
uels, Miss Marion H. Schenk, Kenneth E.
Shepard, Joseph J. Shine, Mrs. Solomon B.
Smith, James C. Spangler, Miss Anne Span-
ik, Mrs. Robert E. Spiel, Dr. Simon L.
Sprtel, M. Bradley Stevenson, Richard O.

EXHIBIT OF NATURE-ART
BY MUSEUM CLASSES

A selection of about fifty paintings and
drawings from the junior and advanced
classes held in this Museum by the School
of the Art Institute of Chicago is being
shown during May in Stanley Field Hall.
The sketches ?re fanciful, with gay colors
in a variety of mediums including crayon,
water-color, and tempera. These young
artists evidently have no difficulty in finding
interesting subjects in the Museum — an-
imals seem to be favorites — and improvisa-
tions are often added to the chosen subjects.
The youngest exhibitor is nine years old.
The pictures in the exhibit were selected by
Miss Maidi Wiebe and Gustaf Dalstrom,
Artists in the Museum's Departments of
Geology and Anthropology respectively.

GIFTS TO THE MUSEUM

Following is a list of principal gifts
received during the past month:

Department of Botany:

From: Holly Reed Bennett, Chicago —
1,2'21 phanerogams; University of California,
Berkeley — isotype {Boiivarida Alexandrae
Carter), Lower California and Mexico;
Conservator of Forests, Sandakan, North
Borneo — 101 wood handsamples; Dr. Egbert
W. Fell, Rockford, 111. — Triplasis purpurea,
308 Illinois plants; Dr. Walter Kiener,
Lincoln, Neb. — 256 algae; Kung-Chu Fan,
Chicago — 14 algae; Dr. Lore Kutschers,
Lafayette, Ind. — Atriplex patula; Dr. Ches-
ter S. Nielsen, Tallahassee, Fla. — 428 algae;
Dr. Paul D. Voth, Chicago — 118 marine
algae; Ernest J. Palmer, Webb City, Mo.
— 531 phanerogams; U. S. Department of
Agriculture, Beltsville, Md. — seed samples
of 36 species of agricultural legumes; Un-
iversidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogota —
Meliosma

Department of Geology:

From: University of Chicago — variety of
mammals from Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleis-
tocene, Montana

Department of Zoology:

From: Dr. Gregorio Bondar, Bahia, Brazil
— 2 fishes; Dr. Arthur N. Bragg, Norman,
Okla. — 23 lots of tadpoles; Lt. Col. Kenneth
F. Bums, Fort Sam Houston — 3 bats, Texas
and Mexico; J. W. Green, San Francisco —
2 paratypes (fireflies), Photinus dimissus,
Kentucky and Texas; Dr. Alfred Heinzel-
man, Rura, Peru — 3 squirrels, 15 rodents;
Harry Hoogstraal, Cairo, Egypt — 9 bats,
Turkey; Tom , McCafferty, Spring Grove,
111. — 6 brown trout

Stoaks, E. H. Stubenrauch, Dr. Fred J.
Stucker, Wayne Swonk, Byron M. Sykes,
Mrs. E. L. Todd, Dr. Samuel Tolpin, C.
Radford Van Ness, Miss Winifred Ver Nooy,
Frederick G. Wacker, Jr., E. Todd Wheeler,
W. L. Wheeler, Charies J. Whipple, Jr.,
J. W. Wirth, Dr. Theodore D. Worth

PRINTED BY CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY .MUSEUM PRESS

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Vol.26, No.6 -June -1955 ,

Chicago Natural |.

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Page 2

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

June, 1955

Chicago Natural History Museum

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893

Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago 5

Telephone: WAbash 2-9410

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lester Armour Henry P. Isham

Sewell L. Aveby Hughston M. McBain

Wm. McCoRMicK Blair William H. Mitchell

Walther Buchen John T. Pirie, Jr.

Walter J. Cummings Clarence B. Randall

Joseph N. Field George A. Richardson

Marshall Field John G. Searle

Marshall Field, Jr. Solomon A. Smith

Stanley Field Louis Ware

Samuel Insull, Jr. John P. Wilson

OFFICERS

Stanley Field President

Marshall Field First Vice-President

Hughston M. McBain Second Vice-President

Joseph N. Field Third Vice-President

Solomon A. Smith Treasurer

Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary

John R. Millar Assistant Secretary

THE BULLETIN

EDITOR
Clifford C. Gregg Director of the Museum

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology

Theodor Just Chief Curator of Botany

Sharat K. Roy Chief Curator of Geology

Karl P. Schmidt Chief Curator of Zoology

MANAGING EDITOR
H. B. Harte Public Relations Counsel

ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Helen A. MacMinn Jane Rockwell

Members are requested to inform the Museum
promptly of changes of address.

PAUL GEORGE DALLWIG

1885—1955

The voice of The Layman Lecturer is
stilled.

Paul George Dallwig died suddenly on
May 14 after a heart attack. He had been
familiar since 1937 as the man who gave his
Sundays to con-
ducting thousands
of Chicagoans and
visitors on tours of
exhibits in the Mu-
seum, interpreting
authentic scientific
facts about the
exhibits in the lan-
guage of the aver-
age man, and fre-
quently staging
with full theatrical
flare dramatized
versions of in-
cidents in the lives
of prehistoric
people and animals.
Mr. Dallwig, who was 69 at the time of
death, made a notable contribution to the
Museum and to the public. He brought the
Museum to the attention of thousands of
people, many of whom, without the stim-
ulation of a special attraction such as he
presented, might not have received the
benefits offered by the institution. To

Paul G. Dallwig

large segments of the public he opened new
vistas in scientific knowledge and thought
that they, without his guidance, might not
have known.

To this commendable undertaking Mr.
Dallwig gave much more of himself than
was apparent. He contributed far more
than the hundreds of Sunday afternoons
devoted to the lectures themselves. Every
lecture represented many hours of day and
night research for weeks at a time. His
preparations were thorough and elaborate.
Hours and hours of reading, of planning, of
thought, of script-writing, and of rehearsal
preceded every lecture. Often a script
was rewritten ten or twelve times. And for
this chosen task, over the years he never
received or wanted a penny of compen-
sation. He was listed as an honorary mem-
ber of the Mu.seum staff with the title "The
Layman Lecturer," for his work was entirely
a labor of love to which he committed him-
self because of his interest in science, in the
Museum, in people, and in conveying knowl-
edge to vast numbers who would not have
had his patience in probing into esoteric
sources for themselves.

WON NATIONAL PROMINENCE

His contribution was truly unique in con-
cept and execution, and he performed this
work with such skill that it attracted the
attention of the press, including several
national magazines that published "profile"
articles about him and his work. The in-
terest developed and led to many calls for
his appearances on other platforms, and he
became even more widely known on several
lecture tours over the country.

All of Mr. Dallwig's activity for the Mu-
seum and his subsequent lectures elsewhere
were carried on while he conducted, in ad-
dition, several successful business enter-
prises. He was the rare example of a busy
man who despite his personal obligations
gave unstintingly of himself to a civic enter-
prise on a scale that most would regard as
too heavy a drain on their time, resources,
and strength.

A graduate of George Washington Univer-
sity, Washington, D.C., class of 1910,
with an LL.B. degree, Mr. Dallwig for some
years practiced his profession of law, but
later he became interested in other business.

A memorial service was held on Sunday,
May 29, in the Museum Lecture Hall where
Mr. Dallwig had been heard by so many
thousands of people. The service was con-
ducted by Colonel Clifford C. Gregg, Di-
rector of the Museum. Dr. Preston Bradley,
pastor of the People's Church of Chicago,
delivered the memorial address. John R.
Hastie, Jr., spoke on behalf of Mr. Dallwig's
colleagues in the insurance field.

The Museum acknowledges a great debt
to Paul George Dallwig. It is unlikely that
anyone ever again will render it a service
so completely unique.

-THIS MONTH'S COVER-

"The Landing of the Explorers"
is the title of our cover photo-
graph. The quest of adventure
and knowledge for hundreds of
thousands of youngsters every
year begins when they go through
the Museum portals into Stanley
Field Hall. Thence they disperse
on their varied expeditions into
every part of the world, which has
been shrunk to easily travelable
proportions for them by the ex-
hibits in this building. They hunt
wild animals, mingle with In-
dian tribes, delve into the far past
of the cavemen, probe mysteries
of ancient Babylon and Egypt, and
survey the Plant and Mineral
Kingdoms. This cover photograph
introduces a story in pictures il-
lustrating the variety of children's
activities during a single day at the
Museum (see pages 4 and 5). The
camera work is by Homer V. Hol-
dren of the Museum's Division of
Photography.

GIFTS TO THE MUSEUM

Following is a list of the principal gifts
received during the past month:

Department of Anthropology:

From: Ralph H. Churchill, Chicago —
copper knife or spear blade, Illinois; Mrs.
Frank Clingan, Detroit — African musical
instrument, Nigeria

Department of Botany:

From: Chef du Service de 1' Agriculture
du rOubangui-Chari, French Equatorial
Africa — 9 seed samples; Department of
Agriculture, New Zealand — 13 seed samples;
Ministry of Agriculture, Sudan — 18 seed
samples; Dr. J. Soukup, Lima, Peru — 35
Peruvian plants; Waite Agricultural Re-
search Institute, Adelaide, South Australia
— 38 seed samples

Department of Geology:

From: H. G. Rose, Hinsdale, 111. — piece
of petrified tree, Arizona; University of
Chicago — mammals from Miocene, Pliocene,
and Pleistocene, Montana; A. M. Jackley,
Pierre, S.D. — casts of pelecypod borings in
fossil wood

Department of Zoology:

From: American Museum of Natural His-
tory, New York — 14 paratypes of 13 species
of scarabaeidae, Mexico; Ismael Ceballos B.,
Cuzco, Peru — non-marine shells, 11 mam-
mals; Dr. John R. Hendrickson, Malaya —
125 fishes; Harry Hoogstraal, Cairo, Egypt
— reprints of papers on insects; N. L. H.
Krauss, Honolulu — 12 Gyrinid water bee-
tles, Fiji; M. de Souza Lopes, Rio de Jan-
eiro— 4 lots of non-marine shells; T. Pain,
London — non-marine shells, South America;
Dr. John G. Williams, East Africa — 9 bird-
skins

June, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page S

IN QUEST OF RUSSELIA,
THE CORAL PLANT

By MARGERY C. CARLSON

Dr. Carlson, Associate Professor of Botany at
Northwestern University, is also Associate in
Botany on the Museum staff. Her earlier
expeditions had as their purpose collecting as
many kinds of plants as possible in (1) the
mountains of El Salvador; (2) a lake region
in the southern part of the state of Chiapas,
Mexico; and (3) the cloud forests of Honduras.
All collections from these and her fourth ex-
pedition are deposited in the herbarium of the
Museum.

WANDERING AROUND in Mexico
and Central America in search of plants
is a most pleasant occupation, although the
preparation of the collections may be a bit
arduous. I returned recently from my
fourth expedition, on which I tracked down
the species of a certain genus of plants,
Russelia. I wanted to find the places where

SOUTH-OF-THE-BORDER TREASURE

Botanist Margery C. Carlson in the field with some
packs of specimens she collected on expedition,

they had first been collected, see their mode
of growth, and record their distribution.

The genus Russelia of the snapdragon
family, based on plants collected near
Havana, Cuba, was established in 1763. It
was named for an English naturalist, Alex-
ander Russell. The first plants grown in
England from seeds were collected near
Veracruz, Mexico, and quickly became
popular as greenhouse plants. The plants
make a beautiful show in hanging baskets
because of their pendulous habit. Some
forty species have been named; but the
genus has never been studied thoroughly,
the keys for identifying the species are in-
adequate, and the names of some species
are confused.

CRIMSON FLOWERS

The species of Russelia are shrubby or
vine-like plants with conspicuous clusters of
pretty crimson flowers. Several species are
grown as garden flowers in southern Florida
and California, but they are not hardy in
areas where the temperature falls to freezing.
Their native home is Mexico, Central
America, and the West Indies.

Kate Staley, my companion, and I left on
December 15, 1954, for three and one-half
months. We packed our car with equipment
for preserving the plants (pressing frames,
old newspapers, pressing blotters, and four
kerosene lanterns for drying them) and with
notebooks, medicines, shovel, tow cable,
machete, ax, sleeping bags, gasoline stove,
cooking utensils, and cans of kerosene and
gasoline.

In preparation for the trip, I had marked
on blank maps all the places where Russelia
had been collected — one map for each species.
From these I had planned the route. Many
of the collections had been made along the
highways; so the trip was not as exciting as
those into wild areas where no collector has
worked previously.

CANYONS EXPLORED

I was surprised, however, to discover into
what remote places some of the earlier
collectors had gone. In 1906, for example,
C. G. Pringle had collected Russelia pringlei
in Iguala Canyon. We went to Iguala,
Mexico, but no canyon is evident from the
town, which lies in a broad, flat valley. We
reached the canyon by driving to a village
north of Iguala, where we left the car and
walked five miles along the railroad track
that enters the village over a trestle seventy-
five feet high. In the canyon we found
Pringle's Russelia, as well as many other in-
teresting plants, such as agaves, echeverias,
and pincushion cactus.

While visiting with Mexican friends who
are interested in our work, we often learned
of good places for plant collecting, even in
the vicinity of cities. Such places would be
difficult, if not impossible, to find without
such information, and they usually yield
valuable collections because they are not
disturbed by cultivation or by grazing.
Such was the case when we visited two can-
yons in the vicinity of Monterrey: Huasteco
Canyon and Canyon de la Boca. These
have gravelly canyon floors where the native
people have made tracks with their ox-carts.
By following these tracks with the car, we
were able to penetrate deeper than would
have been possible by foot in the time avail-
able. In both canyons we found Russelia
and other plants.

A friend in Valle de Bravo told us about
Canyon del Diablo, about ten miles down the
road. This canyon was not accessible by
car, but our friend "lent" us her gardener,
who knew the trail that entered the canyon.
Although the trail was difficult, we were able
to make our way down the almost perpen-
dicular wall to the bottom. Here, again,
collecting was excellent and especially in-
teresting because we found several orchid
species on the rocks and on the branches
of the trees.

Another good collecting place was San
Miguel Regla, near Pachuca, Mexico. In
{Continued on page 8, column 1)

EXHIBIT OF GEM CRAFTS
HERE DURING JUNE

ON DISPLAY this month in Stanley
Field Hall of the Museum is a wide
assortment of objects including rings, ear-
rings, bookends, and ashtrays, as well as
valuable gems and jewels. These are not
artifacts in the Museum's collections from
Melanesia, Africa, or Egypt, but prize-
winning amateur creations from Chicago
and suburbs entered in the Chicago Lapi-
dary Club's Fifth Annual Amateur Hand-
crafted Gem and Jewelry Competitive
Exhibition.

This competitive show, which fosters
creativeness in a specialized art, is held
every year at Chicago Natural History
Museum from June 1 through June 30.
This year the show attracted unusually
strong competition from all parts of Chicago
and from suburban communities within a
fifty-mile radius.

RIBBONS, MEDALS, TROPHIES

The show is divided into two classifications
— novice (up to two years' experience) and
advanced. Fifty-seven ribbons, eight med-
als, and eleven trophies were awarded this
year's winners, including the Dalzell trophy
for "Best of Show," the President's trophy
for outstanding lapidary craftsmanship, and
the Directors' trophy for outstanding jew-
elry.

Entries in both novice and advanced
classifications competed in the following
craft divisions: (1) individual gems, cabo-
chon; (2) individual gems, faceted; (2) spe-
cific gem collections; (4) general gem collec-

'PORTRAIT IN GEMS'
Composed wholly of gem materials, this picture o£
butterflies and daisies \s the creation of J. Lester
Cunningham, of Chicago. It is an entry in the
Chicago Lapidary Club's competitive exhibit of
gem crafts at the Museum June 1 to 30

tions; (5) individual jewelry; (6) jewelry
sets; (7) jewelry collections; (8) special
pieces; (9) polished-slab collections (10)
polished-specimen collections; (11) enameled
jewelry; (12) enameled special pieces. Many
of the amateur craftsmen received instruc-
{Continued on page 6, column 1)

YOUTH GOES FOR SCIENCE . . .

ALL IN A DAY AT THE MUSEUM-
Xi. These photographs show varied activities
for children during a single recent Saturday

morning at Chicago Natural History Museum.
There were: a Science Fair in which upper-
elementary and high-school pupils displayed

SCIENCE FAIR — Regular Museum exhibits in Stanley Field Hall give way for a day to

creations of pupils in upper elementary grades and students in high schools of city and

suburbs. Show was sponsored by the Chicago Teachers Science Foundation.

in Stanley Field Hall exhibits of their own
creation, an "expedition" by Brownies (young-
est division of Girl Scouts), and a puppet
show in James Simpson Theatre.

AN ALL-TIME RECORD for children's ac-
tivities was achieved in April by the Raymond
Foundation, which, besides theatre shows,
school extension-lectures, and other programs,
conducted 8,348 youngsters in 160 school
groups on tours of Museum exhibits. At press
time, indications are that the record may be
equaled or excelled in May.

THE ONCOMING SUMMER MONTHS
will bring thousands of children, too. These
will include, in addition to the throngs that
come independently, many play groups, day-
camp units, clubs, nature-study and Indian-lore
students, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, YMCA's,
etc.

ON THE FOUR THURSDAYS in July
and the first two in August the Summer Series
of Children's Movies in James Simpson
Theatre (10 a.m. and 11 a.m.) will bring about
2,000 children for each show. A special
"journey" in the young Museum Travelers
Series may be taken any day in July or August
by individual children or groups. Parents are
invited to use the Museum as a safe haven for
children any day (9 a.m. to 6 p.m.) during the
long summer vacation from school.

FUTURE ASTRONOMER-Robert Liska,
of Gross School. Brookfield, demonstrates
reflecting telescope he built. It works, too.

JLMOK i'ALEONTOLOGIST-Models

of dinosaurs are displayed by Joanne Werner

of Pershing School, Berwyn.

Page i

STAR-GAZING— Cecily Resnick (right), of

Whitticr School, Oak Park, demonstrates

miniature planetarium to visitors.

EXPEDITION ORDERS-Edith Fleming
of Raymond Foundation stafi issues guide-
sheets to Brownie Girl Scout explorers.

"CAMP IN CHINA"— Brownies halt *'expedition" temporarily at study site among Oriental

exhibits to listen to "directives" from their adult Girl Scout troop leaders. Through the

magic of Museum collections they are enabled to explore Africa, too, in one day.

The Juvenile Picture in Perspective . . ,
These Youngsters Are Not a Problem
They Seek and SOLVE Problems!

ALL LARGE GROUPS and organizations
of young people are welcome in the Museum
at all times. When desired, special tours,
programs, or series of programs will be
planned for them by consultation in advance
with members of the staff of the James Nelson
and Anna Louise Raymond Foundation.

SATURDAY AUDIENCE at puppet show, one of the series of free programs provided by
Rayinond Foundation in the the James Simpson Theatre. Children and a few accompanying
aduhs all register delight at performance. A new series of programs comes in July and August.

Page 5

ON-STAGE RECEPTION-Puppeteer

Basil Milovsoroff shows lingering members

of audience how his **cast" does its act.

Page 6

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

June, 1955

SPECIAL EXHIBIT OF GEMS

{Continued from page 3)

tion in gem-cutting and jewelry-making in
classes offered in field houses throughout
the small parks of the Chicago Park District.
Awards for this year's event were made at
the Hamilton Park Field House from May
20 through 22.

TIME, PATIENCE, SKILL

A piece of rough gem material that ap-
pears to be nothing more than an ordinary
rock takes hours of time, patience, and skill
for transformation into a striking cabochon.
Many of the "rockhounds" who entered the
contest are expert metal craftsmen, too, and
work as competently in gold as they do in
sterling silver or copper. Although many
of the contestants have had only a few years'
experience and little or no formal training
in design, their jewelry creations aptly fol-
low traditional patterns and extend to
modern and ultramodern motifs.

Rockhounds gather their gem material
from all over the world. Included in this
year's show are malachite from the Belgian
Congo, opal from Australia, tiger-eye from
Africa, sunstone from Norway, banded
agate from Brazil, and jade from Burma
and New Zealand.

WHAT IS A CARAT?

By J. LESTER CUNNINGHAM

CHICAGO LAPIDARY CLUB

While everyone knows that a carat is a measure
of weight for gems, few people have any con-
ception of its relationship to such familiar
measures of weight as an ounce or a pound.
Even most of the "rockhounds," who this
month have their annual exhibit of amateur
handcrafted gems and jewelry in Stanley Field
Hall of the Museum, apparently have only the
vaguest notion. To clarify the matter for
them, Mr. Cunningham, a director and past
president of the Chicago Lapidary Club, pre-
pared an article that is to appear in the June
issue of the Lapidary Journal, national month-
ly magazine for gem hobbyists. The Bulletin
is publishing the following abstract because of
the subject's interest to others, since almost
everybody possesses some jewelry and at times
uses the term carat with scarcely any idea of
what it m^ans. Mr. Cunningham tells how to
get the actual "feel" of a single carat.

WHAT IS A CARAT? How much is
a gram? At 10 cents a carat for rough
gem material what is the price for an ounce?
At 50 cents a gram, how much do you pay
for a pound?

If weighty questions like these puzzle you,
you have lots of company. Books on lapi-
dary subjects don't give the answers. And
I've never found a single gem "expert" who
can easily tell me what gem weights are all
about in terms I can readily comprehend
and put to everyday use.

I finally decided to see if I could devise
a simple and practical table of gem weights
and comparisons that an amateur could
readily understand. Several months of
searching showed why there is such a
scarcity of published material — there are
too many complex variations between the
different systems of weight and too many
complications in making workable com-
parisons. Eventually I solved the problem
to my own satisfaction by trial and error
experimentation. By a highly unacademic
approach I evolved a system that's surpris-
ingly simple to understand and use, and it
doesn't require a master's degree in mathe-
matics as a prerequisite.

In presenting the system I must emphasize
that all comparative weights are necessar-
ily approximations — however, they're very
close and suitable for most practical pur-
poses. The specific weights in each example
were arrived at by carefully weighing from
five to forty samples in each case and com-
puting the average.

definition of terms

First we will define terms. Our starting
point is a typical, average diamond engage-
ment ring. Chances are you gave one, or
have one that was given to you, or have
examined dozens worn by your friends. The
unit of weight for diamonds and for em-
eralds, rubies, sapphires, opals, and some
other gems is the metric carat, adopted as
standard for the United States in 1913. A
carat consists of 100 points, the term used
to express fractions. Thus, if a diamond
weighs ^ of a carat it is described as weigh-
ing 75 points. The next unit is the gram.
It is simply 5 carats, and thus it contains
500 points.

The weight significance of points, carats,
and grams is made easier to understand by
associating them in relationship to the ounce
and pound, our most commonly used units
of weight, as in the following table:

TABLE OF APPROXIMATE COMPARATIVE
GEM WEIGHTS

Unit

Grams

Carats

Points

1 Carat

=

1/5

1.00

100

1 Gram

=

1.00

5.00

500

1 Ounce

=

28.35

141.75

14,175

1 Pound

=

453.60

2268.00

226,800

You'll notice that our familiar ounce con-
tains 28.35 grams. Thus a gram is only a
trifle more than 1.28th of an ounce. How
relatively little weight a carat represents
is revealed by the fact that 141.75 carats
are required to total an ounce, and the
number of points in an ounce is 14,175.
Thus the point unit is only the weight of a
small sliver of a split hair. Or, going to the
pound comparison, a pound contains 2,268
carats or more than a quarter of a million
points. Thus it turns out that gem material
in the rough at 10 cents a carat costs $14.17
an ounce. At 50 cents a gram, with 453.60
grams in a pound, the pound cost is $226.80.

A one-carat diamond in an engagement ring
may cost $500, in which case, on a pound
basis, a pound of diamond would cost
$1,134,000!

TANGIBLE COMPARISON UNITS

While our table makes far more under-
standable the actual weight significance of
the point, carat, and gram in terms of nu-
merical relationship with the ounce and
pound, it leaves lacking the "feel" of how-
much actual physical weight is represented
by each of the three gem-measuring units.
I decided to find some universally common
object that weighed one pound and then
seek similar examples for the ounce, gram,
and carat. But this turned out to be a
chore of no small dimensions. In all, I
test-weighed 239 different items, from 5 to
40 of each, to get typical average weights.
I finally found weight examples for four of
the five weight denominations involved.
Each is commonplace and each is highly
practical for making weight comparisons.
These examples are not recommended where
laboratory exactness is required but are in-
tended only for a simple easy-to-grasp
understanding of the weight significance of
the various units.

It is surprisingly difficult to find some
ordinary object with wide accessibility that
weighs one pound. I rejected the obvious
pound of butter or coffee because of varia-
tions in packing each brand. I expected to
find my example among carbonated-bever-
ages, but a full bottle of a popular cola drink
weighs about 114 pounds and the empty
bottle only ^ of a pound. The same weights

occurred in another soft drink. I eventually
found what I was looking for: the 12-fluid-
ounce cans (ice cold) of a certain brand of
beer proved to have a consistently main-
tained average weight of one pound.

For commonplace weight examples of the
ounce and for usable multiple units of the
gram, carat, and point, I was disappointed
to find U.S. coins valueless.

CIGARETTE A GUIDE

Eventually after weighing about every-
thing in sight, including candy bars, paper
clips, aspirin tablets, jewelers' saws, and
chewing gum, I put a fresh unopened pack-
age of a certain brand of cigarettes on

June, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 7

the scale. It weighed only a whisker less
than one ounce. Furthermore, the individ-
ual cigarettes (regular, not king size)
turned out to be an excellent weight example
for a gram each. While there is some in-
finitesimally slight variation, it is negligible,
and the cigarettes run close enough to con-
sider one of them equal to one gram (or 5
carats, or 500 points).

My weight example for one carat is even
more unconventional. Take a full standard-
size package of book-matches. Tear out
two matches and light each one. The in-
stant the momentary fiareup ends, blow out
the flame. The weight of what remains of
the two matches is approximately one carat.
You will hardly be conscious of their in-
significant weight in your hand, but when
you recall that 2,268 of these carats equal
a pound — and in diamonds at $500 a carat,
the value of a pound would be more than
one million one hundred thousand dollars —
their weight reacquires significance.

EXPEDITION RESUMES
NEW MEXICO 'DIG'

By PAUL S. MARTIN

CHIEF CURATOR, DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY

THE 1955 SOUTHWEST Archaeological
Expedition will start work in New Mex-
ico in June. We had halfway planned on
pulling up stakes this year to follow the
ancient trek of the Mogollon Indians whose
history we have been unearthing for the
past eleven years. Several reasons, partly
budgetary and partly archaeological, made
it seem wiser to remain this season in our
present camp. The archaeological reason
is that new evidence turned up during the
winter.

But, as the radio and TV announcers say,
"First a word of explanation."

HOUSING EVOLUTION

During the past eleven years we have dug
126 rooms and pit-houses and seven caves.
From this extensive digging we have traced
the prehistory of the Mogollon Indians from
about 2500 B.C. to about a.d. 1050. One
interesting architectural item that had crop-
ped up was the evolution of houses. We were
under the impression that the pit-house was
in vogue from about 2500 B.C. to about
A.D. 900 and that it had then been entirely
replaced by surface houses with several con-
tiguous rooms and walls of stone masonry.

During the winter a highway salvage-
program directed by Dr. Fred C. Wendorf,
under the auspices of the New Mexico State
Highway Department, the U.S. Bureau of
Public Roads, the U.S. Department of the
Interior, and the Museum of New Mexico,
excavated a site on the right-of-way of the
new road from Apache Creek to Reserve,
New Mexico. Bulldozers and mechanical
equipment uncovered seven subterranean
structures that were certainly built after

A.D. 900. These structures, which were
roughly 12 by 14 feet and about 8 feet deep,
were equipped with ventilators, fire-pits,
foot drums, cornmeal grinding bins, and
other household equipment. They may
have been kiva pit-houses. This possible
dual function is a question that is yet to be
resolved.

But the salient point of interest is the fact
that here are kiva pit-houses persisting into
late times (long after we thought they had
gone out of style) and probably flourishing
simultaneously alongside the multiroomed
surface houses. Here, then, appears to be
an example of "conservatives" versus "lib-
erals." The former may have doggedly
clung to the old-type Mogollon pit-house in
preference to the new-fangled surface houses
imported from strange people (about 100
miles away!) and liked by the "liberals."

WILL SEEK ARCHITECTURAL LINKS

We don't know that these were the cul-
tural factors operating in that distant time,
but we feel that it is imperative to find out
more about this subject. We also must
search for the connecting architectural links
between the kiva pit-houses of A.D. 900 and
those found last winter. This is something
we may have missed.

But the strongest archaeological reason
for pursuing our Mogollon studies in the
Pine Lawn Reserve area a little further is
that we want to find the last Mogollon
stronghold from which these people left for
other areas. We need this vital clue to help
us determine the cause for their exodus.
We have fairly good hunches as to where they
went but no idea as to why.

NEW MEMBERS

(April 16 to May 13)

Non-Resident Life Member

Mrs. Lydia C. Weaver

Associate Members

William L. English, Marshall E. Strauss,
Miss Elizabeth Van Hagen, J. L. Vette,
Mrs. Elmer K. Zitzewitz

Non-Resident Associate Member

Kenneth A. Hagerty

Annual Members

William J. Ahlfeld, Robert C. Baker, Dr.
David G. Berens, Mrs. Rose B. Cohn,
Harold Harlow Corbin, Jr., Miss Florence
Deneen, Eugene V. Diggins, Thomas Elver,
Irving D. Fasman, Miss Helen Flaherty,
Paul Grant, Mrs. George L. Green, W. S.
Heberling, John W. Hill, Rolwood R. Hill,
Milton E. Hyde, Julius C. Jaffe, R. A.
Jarecki, William Katz, H. L. Littig, Ray-
mond G. Lonnon, Stephen A. Malato,
Simeon K. Markman, John S. Osborne, Dr.
Harold Ovenu, William O. Petersen, C.
Truman Redfield, Mrs. Oron E. Richards,
Walter B. Scott, Paul W. Stokesberry, Dr.
Ira J. Tresley, Mrs. Joseph L. Valentine,
Rudolph A. Vasalle, Arthur L. Waldner,
Donald H. Wallingford, Arthur G. Weeks,
Sam Winston

Television Programs Feature
Museum Staff Member
The Museum has recently received es-
pecially effective notice on television through
the frequent personal appearances of John
W. Moyer, head of the institution's Divi-
sion of Motion Pictures. Mr. Moyer's TV
engagements present him in "live" lectures
of a half-hour duration, accompanied by the
showing of parts of a film, "Shikar in India,"
that he made during his recent leave of
absence for a U. S. government mission in
India. Mr. Moyer was featured on "The
Great Outdoors" program on May 13
(WGN-TV, Chicago) and on the "Sports-
man's Holiday" program on Detroit's
WWJ-TV (CBS) on May 25 and 26. He
has also recently talked before the Adven-
turers' Club, the Campfire Club, and other
organizations here and elsewhere.

STAFF NOTES

In recognition of his many services to the
Chicago Lapidary Club, John R. Millar,
Deputy Director of the Museum, was pre-
sented with an honorary life-membership at
the club's May meeting .... Rupert L.
Wenzel, Curator of Insects, recently at-
tended a meeting of entomologists in Wash-
ington, D.C. He also studied the histerid
beetle collections in museums of the East
and Canada .... Henry S. Dybas, Associ-
ate Curator of Insects, accompanied by
Alex K. Wyatt, Research Associate in
Insects, will leave early in June on an ento-
mological trip to Georgia and northern
Florida .... Luis de la Torre, Associate
in the Division of Mammals, has been
named a Fellow in Mammalogy under the
terms of the Thomas J. Dee Fellowship ....
Dr. Paul S. Martin, Chief Curator of
Anthropology, Dr. Donald Collier, Curator
of South American Archaeology and Eth-
nology, George I. Quimby, Curator of
North American Archaeology and Ethnology,
Dr. John B. Rinaldo, Assistant Curator
of Archaeology, and Miss Elaine Bluhm,
Assistant in Archaeology, attended the an-
nual meetings of the Society for American
Archaeology and the Central States Anthro-
pological Society at Bloomington, Indiana,
in May, where Curator Quimby and
Miss Bluhm presented papers. Curator
Collier was program chairman for CSAS
and Chief Curator Martin was elected
to the executive committee of SAA ....
Roger T. Grange, Assistant in Anthro-
pology, recently talked on "Archaeology
of the Plains" before the Earth Science Club
of Northern Illinois at Downers Grove ....
Dr. Julian A. Steyermark, Curator of
the Phanerogamic Herbarium, lectured on
botanical subjects before the Ravinia
Garden Club and the Countryside Garden
Class of Barrington.

Page 8

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

JuTie, 1955

QUEST OF CORAL PLANT

(Continued from page 3)

the old days it was a hacienda that was used
principally for preparing silver ore. Now
it has been restored as a club for professional
people. Most members go there for recrea-
tion, especially swimming and horseback
riding. A ravine, through which the water
from springs flows, here and there widens
out into lakes and supports a lush vege-
tation.

CLIFF DWELLERS, TOO

We soon learned that Russelia "likes" to
grow on cliffs and in little arroyos as well
as in canyons, and therefore we stopped on
the highway to climb every cliff and to
explore every little valley where the stream-
bed carries off the water from the heights
during the rainy season. It is not surpris-
ing that on some days we traveled only
fifty miles

Many of the early collectors of Russelia
had indicated on their specimens that the
plant had been collected "near" a certain
town. In such cases, our ingenuity was
taxed to find the plant. But in other cases,
the collectors had indicated the locale by the
kilometer mark on the highway (Mexico
marks its highways with the number of
kilometers distant from the capital). We
often had the thrill of finding a certain
species still flourishing in the same place
where it had grown many years ago.

In Oaxaca we heard that work was being
done on the worst parts of an old road over
the Sierra Madre mountains, between Mia-
huatlan and the Pacific coast. This would
open up "new" country, that is, country not
accessible except to the most vigorous col-
lectors. We rented a jeep for the trip and
drove the fifty miles to Miahuatlan over a
fairly good road in three hours. From there
to the coast, another fifty miles, the road
crosses the mountains over a pass at an
elevation of 10,000 feet. This part of the
trip required two days. Progress was slow
because of the poor road and the abundance
of plants to collect.

On a trip such as this, one has either to
camp or depend on the generosity of the few
inhabitants. We stayed on coffee fincas in
the mountains and in homes in the villages.
In the village of Candalaria, a family gave
us one room of its two-room house. When-
ever we stopped at a native hut for a meal,
we would go collecting while the food was
being prepared.

We spent our last month in El Salvador
and Honduras. Time did not permit driv-
ing, as we had done on our former trip, and
so we left the car in Mexico City and went
by plane. In El Salvador we revisited the
northwest part of the country where we had
collected in 1946, and again we made our
headquarters at the hacienda San Miguel.
What memories this visit brought back of
our first experiences with plant collecting!

In Honduras we had great hopes for our
plant collecting at Guaimaca, where we
were to visit friends on their large ranch,
but the season was unusually dry and we
found comparatively few plants in bloom.
We decided, therefore, to use the remaining
time for going cross-country to the north
coast to locate good collecting places for a
possible return trip in a better season.

THE ACCOMMODATING BUS

We wanted to visit Lancetilla in Tela on
the north coast, the experimental botanical
gardens of the United Fruit Company about
which Paul C. Standley, Curator Emeritus

PRIME OBJECT OF THE SEARCH

Russelia, vine-like plant with clusters of crimson

flowers, collected in Mexico by Dr. Carlson to

complete her monograph. Illustration reproduced

from Curtis*s Botanical Magazine of 1813.

of the Museum's phanerogamic herbarium,
has written Flora of the Lancetilla Valley.
Since travel in Honduras has advanced in
one jump from the horseback to the airplane
stage, the roads are few and poor and
transportation by road is primitive and er-
ratic. However, we located a bus — a cargo
truck with boards for seats across half of
it — that took us northward along the shore
of Lake Yojoa to the town of Potrerillos,
where, we were told, we could get a train
to Tela. We sat in front with the driver,
who stopped to practice his marksmanship
with his rifle whenever he saw a hawk and
whenever I wanted to collect a plant or take
a picture.

The trip to Potrerillos took a day and a
half. Here we discovered that there would
be no train until "next week." We learned

'MECCA' CAVES IN

On a recent visit to complete mapping the
black-shale quarry near Mecca, Indiana, Dr.
Rainer Zangerl, Curator of Fossil Reptiles,
and Dr. Eugene S. Richardson, Jr., Curator
of Fossil Invertebrates, found that the head-
wall of the quarry had slumped in during
the winter, covering the quarry floor with
as much as four feet of mud and vegetation.
They report that freezing and thawing
proved too much for the headwall, which
they had opened up last year by cutting a
ten-foot cliff in shale and soil to expose the
Pennsylvanian (Coal Age) shale containing
the many tiny fossils they sought. Fortu-
nately, in anticipation of just such an occur-
rence, they had removed during the 1954
season all the shale needed for their work, so
that the "Mecca Project" at the Museum is
in no way interrupted. This project has at-
tracted much attention in the geological
profession, and several parties from other
institutions visited the site during the period
of excavation.

"Highlights Tours" Oflered Daily

Free guide-lecture tours are offered
daily except Sundays under the title
"Highlights of the Exhibits." These tours
are designed to give a general idea of the
entire Museum and its scope of activities.
They begin at 2 p.m. on Monday through
Friday and at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Special tours on subjects within the range
of the Museum exhibits are available Mon-
days through Fridays by advance request.

of a bus that would take us to San Pedro
Sula, from where we could "surely get a
train to Tela." But there was no train to
Tela from San Pedro and, since there are
no roads from there to the coast, we were
reduced to using the modern way of trans-
portation in Honduras. We took an air-
taxi and arrived in Tela in twenty minutes.
The trip home, by plane to Mexico City and
from there by auto, was uneventful.

On the basis of my collecting experiences
and field observations, I now hope to com-
plete my monograph on Russelia. Perhaps
I should explain what is involved in such
work. According to long-established prac-
tice, I read all published descriptions and
accounts of the plants, most of them in
Latin. Then I studied and compared all
specimens of the genus available in major
herbaria. After that, I was ready to study
the plants in the field and make large col-
lections of each species to determine the
variations. Now I am able to decide which
of the named species are good, select their
legitimate names, prepare adequate descrip-
tions, make a key by which they can be
identified, and map their distribution.

PRINTED BY CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PRESS

Vol.26. No. 7 -July -1955

Chicago Natural
History Museum

Pages

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

July, 1955

Chicago Natural History Museum

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893

Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago 5

Telephone: WAbash 2-9410

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lester Armour Henry P. Isham

Sbwell L. Avery Hughston M. McBain

Wm. McCormick Blair Willlam H. Mitchell

Walther Buchen John T. Pirie, Jr.

Walter J. Cummings Clarence B. Randall

Joseph N. Field George A. Richardson

Marshall Field John G. Searle

Marshall Field, Jr. Solomon A. Smith

Stanley Field Louis Ware

Samuel Insull, Jr. John P. Wn^ON

OFFICERS

Stanley Field President

Marshall Field Firal Vice-PrenderU

Hughston M. McBain Second Vice-President

Joseph N. Field Third Vice-President

Solomon A. Smith Treasurer

Clifford C. Gregg .Director and Secretary

John R. Millar Assistant Secretary

THE BULLETIN

EDITOR
Clifford C. Gregg Director of the Museum

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology

Theodor Just Chief Curator of Botany

Sharat K. Roy Chief Curator of Geology

Austin L. Rand Chief Curator of Zoology

MANAGING EDITOR
H. B. Harte Public Relations Counsel

ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Helen A. MacMinn Jane Rockwell

Members are requested to inform the Museum
promptly o£ changes ol address.

DR. KARL SCHMIDT RETIRES;
GOES ON WITH RESEARCH

ONE OF THE MUSEUM'S most emi-
nent scientists, Dr. Karl P. Schmidt,
Chief Curator of the Department of Zoology,
has reached retirement age and will sur-
render control of his department effective
July 1. The Museum as an institution and
his colleagues on the staff are happy that he
will remain as Curator Emeritus of Zoology
and will occupy a laboratory in which he
will devote himself to research, relieved of
the details of departmental administration.

Dr. Schmidt is not only one of the all-time
"stars" associated with the scientific
achievements of this Museum, but he is also
universally recognized as one of the top-
ranking biologists of America.

His service to Chicago Natural History
Museum covers a span of thirty-three years.
After graduating from Cornell University,
he was on the staff of the American Museum
of Natural History, New York, from 1916
to 1922 as research assistant and assistant
curator of herpetology. In 1922 he came to
Chicago to accept an appointment as As-
sistant Curator of Reptiles at this Museum,
where he became Curator of Reptiles and
Amphibians in 1937 and Chief Curator of
the Department of Zoology in 1941. He
attained an international reputation as one
of the foremost authorities in his special
field of reptiles and amphibians, but he has

as well an amazingly broad background in
all phases of zoology and biology and in
geology and anthropology. His major ex-
peditions for this Museum are the Marshall
Field Expeditions to Central America (in
1923) and to Brazil (in 1926), the Cornelius
Crane Pacific Expedition (1928-29), and the
Magellanic Expedition to lower South
America (1939-40). His field work has
taken him to the West Indies, Mexico, New
Zealand, and Israel. In addition to the long
list of technical books and papers that he
has published he is author of a number of
popular books for laymen and for children.
He has also been an editor of several scien-
tific periodicals.

SALUTED IN BOOK

As a special honor, the Museum published
on his birthday, June 19, under the title Karl
Patterson Schmidt — Anniversary Volume in
Honor of His Sixty-fifth Birthday, a book
of 728 pages, containing not only personal
tributes but also a symposium of twenty-five
technical papers on a wide variety of

Arizona Daily Scar photo by Bernie Roth

RETIRES-CONTINUES WORK
Dr. Karl P. Schmidt (right). Chief Curator of
Zoology, will lay down reins of department super-
vision July 1, but he was in the field collecting
reptiles in the Southwest and Mexico as recently as
June. Shown with him is D. Dwight Davis, Curator
of Vertebrate Anatomy. Dr. Schmidt will remain at
the Museum for full-time research work.

scientific subjects by fellow staff-members.
Such a volume is a traditional form of
tribute used by scientists to express their
recognition of an eminent colleague. The
book is the second of its kind to be published
by this Museum, the first having been
dedicated in 1941 to Dr. Schmidt's prede-
cessor, the late Dr. Wilfred Hudson Osgood,
at the time of his retirement.

The present volume opens with an enco-
mium on the work of Dr. Schmidt by Stanley
Field, President of the Museum. Mr. Field
outlines the high points of Dr. Schmidt's
long career at the Museum — his expeditions
to practically all parts of the world, his

-THIS MONTH'S COVER-

The large, rare jar of jade
shown on our cover will go on
exhibition in Stanley Field Hall
on July 1. More than 30 inches
tall and weighing 283 pounds, it
is a choice example of 18th cen-
tury art in the reign of Emperor
Ch'ien-lung (1736-96). The jar is
being presented to the Museum
by Mr. and Mrs. Julius J. Bensa-
bott, of Chicago (see account on
page 5).

contributions to ecology, zoogeography, tax-
onomy, and zoological literature, and his
discoveries of many new genera and species.
The general characterization of Dr. Schmidt,
sensed by all who know him, is summed up
by Mr. FMeld in one paragraph: " A museum
zoologist is a naturalist, and the hallmark
of a naturalist is breadth of background and
interest. One of the unfortunate results of
increasing knowledge is increasing special-
ization, which often leads to stultifying
narrowness of thinking and dangerous nar-
rowness of interpretation, in science as in
all other human activities. Certainly one
of the primary responsibilities of a natural
history museum, and of the men who staff
it, is to maintain the broad perspective of
nature as a whole that is now so often miss-
ing from the science departments of our
colleges and universities. Dr. Schmidt ex-
emplifies to a high degree the breadth of
interest and experience that characterizes
the true naturalist."

TRIBUTE TO PERSONAL QUALITIES

In another prefatory note, Colonel Clif-
ford C. Gregg, Director of the Museum,
points out that beyond Dr. Schmidt's at-
tainments in exploration and research, he
deserves a special tribute for his kindness,
gentleness, and helpfulness to others. "At
the Museum, Karl Schmidt, perhaps more
than any other scientist on the staff, has
interested himself in the training of young
men and women for scientific careers,"
writes Colonel Gregg. "Quite a number of
persons have become zoologists or special-
ists in fields related to zoology through his
interest and advice. Many more, while
pursuing careers in other lines, have main-
tained a deep interest in zoology as an
avocation."

Colonel Gregg concludes his preface in
these words: "My own personal apprecia-
tion of Dr. Schmidt (in a friendship of more
than twenty-nine years] is perhaps best
evidenced by the many informal conferences
I have held with him on matters in no way
concerned with his official duties as Chief
Curator of the Department of Zoology.
His broad understanding, his knowledge of
(Continued on page 6, column 1 )

Jidy, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page S

4,000-YEAR.OLD TABLETS
BROUGHT TO LIGHT

By I. J. GELB

PROFESSOR OF ASSYRIOLOGY, ORIENTAL INSTITUTE,
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

IT IS AN OLD and well-known story
that, like the ancient buried cities of
the Near East, our modern museums are
fertile soil for the would-be discoverer of
antiquities. Dug up from their ancient
resting places and shipped along with a host
of other objects to a museum, valuable items
are sometimes stored away and forgotten
for years until a lucky stroke of fortune
brings them to light again.

The rediscovery of the now famous
Babylonian Chronicle telling of the fall of
Nineveh is a case in point. Excavated and

EXAMPLE OF AKKADIAN WRITING
The cuneiform inscription on this particular clay
tablet in the Museum collection consists of discon-
nected words and is believed to have been a vocab-
ulary exercise of a school child who lived more than
4,000 years ago in Mesopotamia.

brought to the British Museum in London
toward the end of the last century, it lay
hidden and unrecognized for years before it
was finally brought out of its oblivion and
published in 1923. Immediately it became
evident that this long-lost document was of
fundamental importance for the correct
understanding of the historical events in
the last days of the Assyrian Empire.

A similar discovery, though not of such
epoch-making proportions, has been made
in Chicago Natural History Museum. Short-
ly after World War I the late Lieutenant-
Colonel J. H. Patterson, D. S. O., British
Army of Occupation in Iraq, purchased a
collection of cuneiform tablets from an Arab
at Babylon and presented them to the

Museum. There they remained unrecog-
nized until they were rediscovered years
later by Richard A. Martin, then Curator
of Near Eastern Archaeology, who requested
me to investigate the collection.

There has never been any question about
the importance of the collection. The
tablets are inscribed in a dialect of the Old
Akkadian language and date back more than
four thousand years, almost to the very
beginning of written history in Mesopo-
tamia. Their importance is immediately
apparent from several points of view.

These texts are a most important source
of material for the study of the oldest
Akkadian dialect. Since Akkadian (also
known as Assyro-Babylonian), like Hebrew
or Arabic, belongs to the Semitic group of
languages, the new texts provide us with
the oldest known materials in the whole
field of Semitics. Important, also, is that
the many personal names mentioned in the
texts help in the reconstruction of the ethnic
background of the area in which the tablets
originated. However, the importance of
the collection is not limited to the ethno-
linguistic sphere. Containing as it does a
respectable number of legal, business, and
administrative texts, the material sheds new
and important light on the rise and develop-
ment of socioeconomic institutions in the
Near East.

LEGAL DOCUMENTS

The most important group of texts in the
collection is that of legal documents per-
taining to the sale of property. Here is the
translation of a typical legal text: "1 Ili-
rabi the priest, 1 Zuzu, 1 Ilulu, 1 Enanra,
1 Hulium, 1 Ilala, 1 Ea-ili, 1 Dan-ih.
Total of 8 witnesses who attested the sale
of the house of Mututu to Ilum-asu." The
texts are terse and they give neither date
nor the size and location of the property.
But the transactions are witnessed, making
the texts legally binding business documents,
in contrast to such other texts in the col-
lection as the one quoted below, which are
not witnessed and must therefore be classi-
fied as administrative texts or memoranda
for private use: "1 female lamb given on
loan to Kalis-tab, free of interest. 4 PI
[i.e., 240 quarts] of barley given on loan to
Isasa [presumably, on interest]." While
some of the administrative texts are very
short, containing only about five to six
lines, the largest text in this group contains
62 lines and had to be subdivided into four
columns because of its size.

I wish to express my gratitude to Colonel
Clifford C. Gregg, Director of the Museum,
for giving me the opportunity to study the
collection and for approving its publication
by the Museum press, as well as to Dr. Paul
S. Martin, Chief Curator of Anthropology,
and Miss Lillian A. Ross, Associate Editor,
for their kind help in technical matters
pertaining to the publication of the mon-
ograph.

WHAT MAKES A DOG TICK
SHOWN IN EXHIBIT

VESTA, the Transparent Dog— a life-
size model of a large Great Dane — will
be on exhibition at Chicago Natural History
Museum from July 15 to September 15.
This special exhibit will be of particular
interest to all dog owners, especially young
folks. It is of value also as a demonstration
of the general anatomy and physiology of
mammals, and thus it can give a number
of lessons applicable in a broad way to many
vertebrate animals including human beings.

Vesta, named for the Roman goddess of
the hearth and guardian of the home, is
able to tell her own story. She is equipped
with a recorded voice that delivers a lecture
about the structure of dogs, which varies
very little from the tiny Mexican hairless
to such giant dogs as the Great Dane itself.
Vesta is also equipped with a complex
system of electrical mechanisms and con-
trols by means of which the parts of the
transparent plastic body can be made to
light up as they are referred to in the dog's
lecture. Thus attention may be concen-
trated in turn upon the respiratory and
circulatory systems, the brain, and the
viscera. One side of the dog shows a detailed
reproduction of the muscular system; the
opposite side shows the skeleton.

Vesta was built at the Deutsches Gesund-
heits Museum in Cologne where a staff of
naturalists and technicians devoted more
than two years to her creation. She was

EXHIBIT TELLS STORY OF DOG
Champion Fury, prize-winning Great Dane, stands
beside Vesta, the Transparent Dog that will be
shown at the Museum from July 15 to September 15.

made for the Gaines Dog Research Center of
New York, under whose auspices she is now
touring the United States. Dr. Bruno
Gebhard, Director of the Cleveland Health
Museum, served as consultant.

Museum Electrician Dies

With regret the Museum records the
death on June 9 of Christ Schnur, at the
age of 72. Mr. Schnur was an electrician
employed in the Museum's Division of
Engineering since 1944.

Pagei

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

July, 1955

SYNOPTIC DISPLAY OF PERCHING SONGBIRDS

By emmet R. BLAKE

CURATOR OF BIRDS

ANEW BIRD EXHIBIT recently in-
stalled in Boardman Conover Hall
(Hall 21) adds twenty bird families to the
Museum's synoptic display of the world's
avifauna. This exhibit, the second of three
designed to illustrate the more conspicuous
physical characteristics of the perching
songbirds (Passeres), shows representative

confusion while permitting ready com-
parisons. All perches are reduced to mere
painted pegs for, in a synoptic series, the
birds themselves obviously are of paramount
importance.

All exhibits of the synoptic series em-
phasize family groups, relationships, and
physical characters. The specific identity
of each bird, although indicated on a label,
is considered relatively unimportant in

WRCN8 AND ALLIES

THRtI r«MILIt«

X ^^*

S&pIi^S!'''-^!?™*""

~*i4'-

NEW EXHIBIT OF SONGBIRDS

The arrangement is by families or family groups, with closest relatives together. Uniform poses facilitate

comparisons. The perches, reduced to a minimum, lessen distracting elements.

species of each family, from the parrotbills
(Paradoxomithidae) to the palm-chats
(Dulidae). The third and last synoptic
exhibit devoted to songbirds is nearing
completion and will treat the larks through
the birds of paradise.

Like its predecessor, the new exhibit
utilizes an exhibition technique developed
by Dr. Austin L. Rand. This was de-
scribed in some detail in an earlier Bulletin
(November 1952, pp. 6-8). Briefly, the
birds in the exhibit are arranged in system-
atic order with the various family groups
segregated on raised panels or plaques
to emphasize their distinguishing character-
istics. Two or more closely related families
are sometimes displayed on a single panel,
but the birds are arranged so as to avoid

these exhibits. Some small bird-families are
represented by a single characteristic species,
while a dozen or more species may be
needed to illustrate the range of variation
in structure, color, and pattern that may
be found in a large family of wide distribu-
tion. In keeping with the principle of
emphasizing family units, both the text
labels and distributional maps treat their
subjects at family level.

Few of the birds in the new exhibit are
strikingly colorful, as were many in the
earlier one that featured shrikes, honey-
eaters, troupials, tanagers, and various
other families of brilliant plumage. Never-
theless, many birds of great interest are
shown. There is a dipper, representing
a family of but five species, which habitually

feeds on the bottoms of swift mountain
streams and literally "flies" while under
water. The palm-chat, a drab boldly
streaked bird of Haiti and nearby Gonave
Island in the West Indies, constructs
a bulky communal nest in the sides of which
several pairs burrow to lay their eggs.
These and many other birds with remark-
able habits, as well as more commonplace
families of birds are shown.

This exhibit was designed by the Division
of Birds. Taxidermy is by Carl W. Cotton,
art work is by Douglas E. Tibbitts, and
maps are by Margaret G. Bradbury.

FIELD STUDY COMPLETED

Zoological field studies and collecting in
the southwest United States and northern
Mexico for 1955 have been completed by
Dr. Karl P. Schmidt, retiring Chief Curator
of Zoology, D. Dwight Davis, Curator of
Vertebrate Anatomy, and Hymen Marx,
Assistant in the Division of Reptiles.

Experimental motion picture and still
photography under field conditions were
undertaken by Curator Davis at the
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, which
maintains a blind for night camera-work.
Every courtesy was extended by Director
William H. Woodin III. Especially im-
pressive was the collection of living plants
and animals of the region maintained as
an effective educational tool and as a base
for research at levels from observation to
complex ecological experiments.

Beaucarnea, a remarkable growth-form of
the lily family, was encountered in eastern
Mexico, and a specimen has been turned
over to Dr. Theodor Just, Chief Curator of
Botany, who will discuss it in a future
Bulletin. Schmidt and Davis renewed
acquaintance with Big Bend National Park
in Texas, where they had participated in
the early natural-history surveys of 1937.
The Museum party joined Marlin Perkins,
Lear Grimmer, and other members of the
Lincoln Park Zoo staff in snake and lizard
collecting in this park.

The men from the Museum are indebted
to Mr. and Mrs. Ellsworth Shaw for their
hospitality both in Tucson and at their
ranch in northwestern Sonora. Most pro-
phetic of future field work were the studies
made at the Shaw ranch and in the dunes
along the northeastern shore of the Gulf of
California where interesting flora and fauna
were observed. This corner of the Mexican
state of Sonora seems, in fact, to be one of
the least known parts of the Great American
Desert. Field studies were made also in
Tamaulipas on the Mexican side and in
New Mexico.

Plant life, from bacteria to orchids, is
summarized by the exhibits in Martin A.
and Carrie Ryerson Hall (Hall 29).

July, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 5

RARE JADE FROM CHINA
ADDED TO EXHIBITS

By M. KENNETH STARR

CURATOR OF ASIATIC ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY

THROUGH THE KINDNESS of Mr. and
Mrs. Julius J. Bensabott of Chicago, the
fine and rare jar shown on the cover of this
Bulletin is being added to the Museum's
collection of Chinese jades. The piece is
being presented in the name of R. Bensabott.

The jar, which was acquired in Pelting, is
a choice example of 18th-century Chinese
artistic and technical excellence in the
working of jade, for it expresses faithfully
the aesthetic orientation pervading the long
and eminent reign of the emperor Ch'ien-
lung (1736-96), whose reign-name is cut
into the rim of the vessel. One account of
the history of this fine piece, accompanied
by a photograph, is given in John Goette's
Jade Lore (New York [1937], pp. 56-58).

The uncommonly large jar was hand
fashioned from a single piece of jade
(nephrite), which, to judge from its color,
quality, and the preferences characteristic
of 18th-century China, most probably had
as its source Eastern, or Chinese, Turkestan.
Upon seeing the jar, one marks immediately
the unusual evenness of the deep green color,
the wonderfully smooth finish implicative
of countless hours of polishing, and the
slightly unctuous luster associated with
nephrite of the first quality. With the
exception of a minor degree of splintery
fracture, largely a manifestation of the
foliation intrinsic to the stone, the piece is
in excellent condition.

CLASSIC DESIGN

In keeping with the traditionalism com-
mon during the general period when the
vessel was made, the inspiration for the
forceful surface treatment was drawn from
the classical period of Chinese culture, for
the origin of the design elements may for
the most part be found in the symbolism —
notably on the ceremonial bronzes — of the
Shang and Chou periods, from a time which
preceded the Christian era by broadly a
millenium. The excellence of the workman-
ship here is in no way more strikingly
communicated than by attention to the
sharp manner in which the decorative
elements are cut.

The jar is distinguished not only by its
quality of stone, superiority of technique,
and traditionalism of style, but also by its
very size, for it is one of the most imposing
pieces of carved jade in the United States.
The complete jar stands 30Ji inches high,
the maximum diameter of the body is 205^
inches, and the thickness of the jar at its
waist is about 2},<2 inches. With its cover,
which alone weighs 20 pounds, the jar
weighs 283 pounds, the hardwood stand
raising the total weight to 305 pounds. The
stand itself is a thing of beauty and excel-
lence of craftsmanship, worthy of exhibi-

tion on its own merits, for the dense fine-
grained wood is inlaid with fine threads of
silver that in keeping with the stylistic
treatment of the jar delineate a classical
motif. The care evidenced in the cutting of
the design into the hard wood and the laying
in of the silver is manifested by the smooth
even flow of the lines in the design.

SPECIAL DISPLAY

The Bensabott jade jar is to be placed as
a special exhibit at the north end of Stanley
Field hall beginning July 1. Thereafter it
will be placed on permanent exhibition in
the Jade Room at the south end of the
Chinese Gallery (George T. and Frances
Gaylord Smith Hall). Here it will enrich
the Museum's collection of Chinese jades,
a collection long distinguished by its quality,
size, and representativeness of the major
periods of Chinese jade carving from the
end of the second millenium of the pre-
Christian era down to the present century.

The presentation of the jade jar is not the
first instance of the generosity of Mr. and
Mrs. Bensabott, for in former years they
have made several other gifts to the
Museum. Most notable among them is a
finely carved official seal-box of green jade,
also dating from the Ch'ien-lung period and
at present on exhibition in the Jade Room.

University Honors Director

The honorary degree of Doctor of Science
was conferred on Clifford C. Gregg, Director
of the Museum, at the annual commence-
ment of Willamette University, Salem,
Oregon, on June 5. The award was given
in recognition of the pre-eminence of the
scientific work of Chicago Natural History
Museum and in recognition of the leadership
of Director Gregg in the Y.M.C.A. on a
nation-wide basis.

Fossil Plants Collected

Several thousand specimens of fossil
plants were collected for the Museum on a
recent field trip to Alabama and Tennessee
by George Langford, Curator of Fossil
Plants, and Orville L. Gilpin, Chief Pre-
parator of Fossils. They worked in Upper
Cretaceous formations near Tuscaloosa,
Alabama, and Hollow Rock, Tennessee.

The most beautiful thing we can experi-
ence is the mysterious. It is the source of
all true art and science. He to whom this
emotion is a stranger, who can no longer
pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe,
is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.

— Albert Einstein

SUMMER ACTIVITIES
FOR JUNIOR SET

Although Chicago schools closed June 24
for the annual summer vacation, the city's
school children can continue their education
in a vivid and exciting way at Chicago
Natural History Museum. The Museum
has prepared an active summer program
that will entertain Chicago's youth.

A Museum Travelers program during July
and August, one of a series of four "jour-
neys" taken during the year, will whisk
members of the younger generation daily to
China where they will learn about Chinese
shadow puppets. They may pick up their
"travel instructions" at the Museum
entrances.

Every Thursday morning at 10 and 11
o'clock, from July 7 through August 11, free
movies for children will be shown (programs
are listed on page 8).

Tours of exhibits for both children and
adults will be conducted by staff lecturers
twice daily (except Saturdays and Sundays)
at 11 A.M. and 2 p.m. Special tours of the
Museum can be arranged by contacting Miss
Miriam Wood, head of the Raymond
Foundation.

STAFF NOTES

Dr. R. H. Whitfield, Associate in Fossil
Plants, and Dr. Eugene S. Richardson,

Jr., Curator of Fossil Invertebrates, lec-
tured jointly before the Braidwood Rotary
Club and the Earth Science Club. Curator
Richardson and Dr. Rainer Zangerl,
Curator of Fossil Reptiles, spoke before the
micropaleontology class at the University of
Illinois, Urbana, and both attended meetings
of the Illinois Academy of Science at Car-
bondale where they presented a paper on the
Museum's "Mecca Project." Curator Rich-
ardson attended the meetings of the Penn-
sylvania Academy of Science at Philadelphia
.... Henry S. Dybas, Associate Curator
of Insects, has begun summer field col-
lecting and research in Georgia and northern
Florida .... Miss Pearl Sonoda, Assistant
in the Division of Fishes, is engaged in
a research project at Hopkins Marine
Station, which is maintained at Pacific
Grove, California, by Leland Stanford
University .... Dr. Donald Collier, Cu-
rator of South American Archaeology and
Ethnology, participated in a symposium on
cultural evolution held at the University of
Illinois, Urbana, in June .... Dr. Julian
A. Steyermark, Curator of the Phanero-
gamic Herbarium, lectured before the Win-
netka Garden Club on "Exploring for Plants
in Venezuela."

Of particular interest in the Hall of Fishes
(Hall O) are exhibits of the whale shark
and devilfish, the largest of the rays.

The giant Galapagos turtle may be seen
in Albert W. Harris Hall (Hall 18).

Page 6

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

July, 1955

SCHMIDT RETIRES-

(Continued from page 2)

the literature of his own and allied fields of
study, his sincere interest and human sym-
pathy, his genial optimism, and his keen
sense of humor have been of invaluable
assistance in sweeping away many of the
difficult and discouraging problems which
find their way into the office of a museum
director. I welcome the years ahead in
which Karl Schmidt will still be present,
not as a Chief Curator burdened with the
administrative duties of a great department
but as an emeritus research scientist who is
free to continue his contribution to science
and to humanity, restricted only by the
hours in the day and the limits of his own
endurance."

A third prefatory note contains a joint
tribute by the twenty-eight scientific con-
tributors to the volume, and this is followed
by the technical papers themselves based on
studies in which many of the contributors
have had the welcomed valuable guidance
and advice of their retiring Chief Curator.
These scientific papers range through all the
divisions of the animal kingdom, and geo-
graphically they cover fields from Illinois
to Brazil, Borneo, and New Caledonia.

RAND HEADS DEPARTMENT;
BLAKE PROMOTED

Dr. Austin L. Rand, the Museum's Cu-
rator of Birds since 1947, has been appointed
Chief Curator of the Department of Zoology
to succeed Dr. Karl P. Schmidt, whose
retirement is announced elsewhere in this
Bulletin.

Probably no Mu-
seum staff writer is
quite so familiar to
readers of the Bulle-
tin as Dr. Rand, whose
always interesting and
often highly amusing
intimate stories about
birds — from Chicago
sparrows to Antarctic
penguins — appear
with great frequency

in these columns. Austin L. Rand

He is also the author

of popular books containing similar accounts
of the special habits, human-like qualities,
and idiosyncrasies of various kinds of birds.
But more important is a long list of technical
publications based on his extensive research.
Before coming to this Museum, Dr. Rand
was associated for about fourteen years with
the American Museum of Natural History,
New York. In 1942 he joined the staff of
the National Museum of Canada, at Ottawa,
where he was Acting Chief of the Division
of Biology. A Canadian by birth. Dr. Rand
is a graduate of Acadia University at Wolf-
ville. Nova Scotia. He earned his Ph.D.

at Cornell University. He has conducted
zoological expeditions in Madagascar, the
southwest Pacific, the United States, Can-
ada, and Central America.

Emmet R. Blake, Associate Curator, will
succeed Dr. Rand as Curator of Birds.
Blake, who had led expeditions to the West
Indies and to Central and South America
for the Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh and
the National Geo-
graphic Society, first
became associated
with Chicago Natural
History Museum (then
Field Museum) in
1931-32 when he was
engaged as ornithol-
ogist to accompany
the Leon Mandel Ven-
ezuela Expedition. In
1935 he was appointed
to the Museum staff
Emmei R. Blake as Assistant Curator

of Birds and since
1947 he has been Associate Curator of Birds.
His expeditions as a member of the Museum
staff have taken him to various Caribbean
localities, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras,
Brazil, and the Guianas. He is the author
of Birds of Mexico, A Guide for Field Iden-
tification and of numerous technical papers.
During the twenty years in which he has
been a staff member of the Museum's Divi-
sion of Birds, the collections have trebled,
increasing from 80,000 to approximately
240,000 specimens. He is a graduate of
Presbyterian College of South Carolina and
earned his master of science degree at the
University of Pittsburgh.

4a

BRYAN PATTERSON NAMED
PROFESSOR AT HARVARD

Bryan Patterson, a member of the Mu-
seum's paleontology staff since 1926 and a
divisional curator since 1942, has resigned,
effective June 30, to accept an appointment
at Harvard University as Alexander Agassiz
Professor of Verte-
brate Paleontology.
Appointment to this
post is recognized as
one of the outstanding
honors in the field of
zoological research.

Curator Patterson
has been engaged for
years in studies of the
ancestry of mammals,
particularly the evo-
lution of mammals in
South America. His
notable achievements

in this field had been previously recognized
by the award of a Carnegie Corporation
grant in 1938 for travel and study in Europe
and two Guggenheim Foundation fellow-
ships (1951-52 and 1954-55). The latter
awards enabled him to extend his researches

Bryan Patterson

during long periods in Argentina.

A native of London, Patterson came to
the United States in 1926, at which time he
began his Museum career as a preparator
in vertebrate paleontology. He later served
as Assistant in Paleontology and Assistant
Curator of Fossil Mammals. From 1942 to
1947 he was Curator of Paleontology;
in 1947 he became Curator of Fossil Mam-
mals. During World War II he saw service
from Normandy to Germany with the U. S.
First Infantry.

MUSEUM SPONSORS 'DIGS'
IN CHICAGO AREA

Bv ELAINE A. BLUHM

ASSISTANT IN ARCHAEOLOGY

For some time archaeologists at Chicago
Natural History Museum have been aware
that very little is known about the archae-
ology of the area closest to the Museum
— the Chicago region. Many people have
collections of Indian artifacts such as axes
and arrowheads, but few of the collections
have been studied in detail. When records
concerning the places where artifacts were
found are lacking, a collection loses much of
its meaning.

Some time ago members of the Earth
Science Club of Northern Illinois became
interested in this problem, and under the
guidance of David Wenner, Jr., a qualified
archaeologist, they began to locate and
record sites in the area. This summer the
Museum is planning to continue this work,
and members of the staff hope to locate and
to test sites of Indian villages and camps in
the Chicago region.*

It is important that this work be under-
taken soon. If it is not, much of the in-
formation about the Indians who occupied
the region before white men came will be
lost. Indian camp sites, burial grounds, and
villages are being destroyed daily by new
roads, new houses, new schools, new in-
dustries, and other projects of modern urban
progress. In some cases people have col-
lections from destroyed sites that will give
clues as to who occupied the sites and when
the sites were occupied. Members of the
Museum and their friends can assist the
staff in writing the prehistory of Chicago if
they will report collections that they may
have from known locations in the city and
suburbs.

From the limited amount of work already
done by members of the Museum staff, the
Earth Science Club, and University of
Chicago students we know that Indians
lived in the Chicago region ever since 5000
B.C. But more work must be done to fill in
many gaps in the story of where and how
the Indians lived for almost 6,500 years
before Columbus discovered America.

* Lake, DuPage, and Cook counties are included in
this study, which will be conducted for the Museum
by Miss Bluhm.

Jnly, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 7

A Fulmar

SOME BIRDS ARE 'SKUNKS'!

By AUSTIN L. RAND

CHIEF CURATOR OF ZOOLOGY

WHEN Mrs. McGillihoulie or her
daughter discourages a visitor to
their cottage by dashing a pan of dishwater
over him, they're using a technique that is
followed in essence by the fulmar. The ful-
mar spits out an oily fluid at an intruder
that approaches its nest.

The fulmar, one of the lesser relatives of
the albatrosses, is a gray and white sea-bird
of northern oceans. Most of its life is spent
at sea where enemies are few. Even when
it comes to land to nest, its size (that of a
gull) and its disposi-
tion seem adequate
protection for the full-
grown bird. But the
downy young fulmar
must spend some
weeks on the ledge
as it grows up. Dur-
ing the first week or
two of its life, one or
the other of its parents
is constantly with it.
After that, both may be away for long per-
iods seeking food. But the young bird,
which would be a meal for one of the larger
marauding gulls, has its parents' habit of
spitting oil at intruders. Its aim isn't very
good, and its range is small — only a few
feet — but oil spitting seems to be an actual
defense.

Oil spitting is done by a number of other
species of tube-nosed swimmers — that group
of sea-birds ranging in size from the tiny
petrels through the larger shearwaters and
fulmars to the giant albatrosses. Interest-
ingly, the young birds seem better at oil
spitting than the adults and in some species
only the young do it.

The origin and the function of stomach oil
has long been a mystery. Recently Dr. L.
H. Matthews has shown that this oil is a
secretion from the proventriculus, the fore-
part of the stomach that in most birds is
important for secreting digestive juices.
When modern studies were made of the
fulmar on its nesting ledges on the cliffs of
the British Isles, the use of stomach oil as
a weapon — a projectile to drive intruders,
such as gulls, from the nest — came as a new
explanation of the function of stomach oil
and apparently an important one.

MANY EXPLANATIONS

It would seem that human ingenuity has
about exhausted itself in suggesting func-
tions of stomach oil. It has been said that
the oil may be used in excretion as a means
of ridding the system of excess vitamins and
fats; in feeding the young (this is surely
only an incidental use because the young
manufacture the oil themselves); and in
courtship (where the oil is passed from bill
to bill the way cedar waxwings pass berries).
It has also been said that the oil may be

used in preening (waterproofing plumage is
certainly a necessity for sea-going birds, but
they do have preen glands for this) and in
calming rough water (oil has been used for
centuries to calm the sea around a ship
lying-to). And now we have the new theory
that fulmars use stomach oil to defend them-
selves.

Perhaps with additional knowledge other
explanations for the use of stomach oil will
present themselves. The primary function
may be among the above, with the others
incidental and secondary. Or perhaps all
the above uses are only incidental, and
another function, as surprising as the use of
oil for defense, may be found.

Related behavior in other kinds of birds
is not far to seek. The gorged turkey vul-
ture quietly digesting its meal may, when
alarmed, throw up all its stomach contents
to lighten its body so that it can fly away.
With the gannets, too, this habit is practised,
making escape by flight easier. We must
remember that the fulmar spits out not only
stomach oil but food ; in fact, it regurgitates
whatever is in its stomach. This general
habit of regurgitation could be considered
as having become fixed, especially in the
young fulmar, and specialized for a par-
ticular purpose.

Among vertebrates the forceful ejection
of a fluid as a weapon has evolved at least
once in nearly every group. The skunk
with its strong-smelling spray from anal
glands is well known among mammals.
The cobra spits venom, and the horned toad
squirts blood from around its eyes. Amphib-
ians have poisonous skin-secretions, but
these creatures don't, as far as I know,
forcibly eject their poisons. The archer fish
takes water into its mouth and squirts it out
again as a projectile that will knock insects
off perches into the water where the fish can
eat the insects. Oil spitting has evolved
only once in birds — in the tube-nosed swim-
mers, of which the fulmar is illustrated here.

Books

Director to Tour Europe

On July 14, Colonel Clifford C. Gregg,
Director of the Museum, will sail from New
York for several weeks in Europe. His first
stop of importance will be in London, where
he plans to visit the British Museum, Kew
Gardens, and other museums and special
exhibits. Subsequently he will tour north-
ern Europe, devoting the last part of his
tour to Paris. He plans to return to the
Museum immediately after Labor Day.

Appointment in Paleontology

David Techter has been appointed
Assistant in the Division of Fossil Verte-
brates. He is a graduate of Yale University
and did post-graduate work in paleontology
at Columbia University. For some time he
was engaged in special work at the American
Museum of Natural History, New York.

(All books reviewed in the Bulletin are
available in The Book Shop of the Museum.
Mail orders accompanied by remittance in-
cluding postage are promptly filled.)

MAMMALS, A GUIDE TO FAMILIAR
AMERICAN SPECIES. By Herbert S.
Zim and Donald F. Hoffmeister. Simon
and Schuster, New York. 160 pages, 218
color illustrations (by James Gordon
Irving). Paperbound $1, ciothbound
$1.95.

Seventh in the popular series of Golden
Nature Guides, this pocket-size book is a
nontechnical introduction to the study of
furred animals. The color figures of prac-
tically all the larger mammals and most of
the smaller ones found in the United States,
Canada, and offshore waters are skillfully
depicted in typical attitudes against natural
backgrounds. The brief and simple text
accompanying the picture of each animal
consists of carefully selected data on dis-
tinguishing characters and habits. Included
with the text is a map showing the range
of the described species.

The section on whales, which is typical of
the treatment given each order of mammals,
packs an amazing amount of information in
concentrated and instantly understandable
form. The 80- to 100-foot-long blue whale
is drawn to scale with a man, horse, and
elephant standing alongside. It appears
that the three could just as easily stand
inside the whale's mouth. The information
on past and present economic status of
whales and the color map of whaling waters
are extra measures of value.

In contrast to these largest of all animals,
the tiny size of the newborn young of the
common opossum is emphasized by showing
ten of them scattered in the hollow of a
teaspoon. An outstanding feature of the
Guide not found in other handbooks of the
class is the illustration of relationships
among mammals by means of family trees
with figures of living and extinct species.
Scientific names of the animals, given in
the index only, could just as well have been
included with the common names in the
text. Students, teachers, and naturalists in
need of a handy guide to American mammals
will find this book stimulating.

Philip Hershkovitz
Associate Curator of Mammals

Technical Publication

The following technical publication has
been issued by Chicago Natural History
Museum Press:

Fieldiana: Zoology, Vol. 35, No. 3. Check
List of North American Water-Mites. By
Rodger D. Mitchell. 44 pages. 76c.

Page 8

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

July, 1955

MOVIES FOR CHILDREN
ON SIX THURSDAYS

The summer series of six free motion-
picture programs for children will be given
in the James Simpson Theatre of the
Museum on Thursday mornings from July
7 to August 12 inclusive. There will be
two showings of the films on each program,
at 10 A.M. and 11 a.m. {because of an extra-
long film on July 7, the second show on that
date will begin at about 11:20 a.m.). A
special feature on the July 14 program will
be a preview of "Vesta, the Transparent
Dog," special exhibit described elsewhere in
this Bulletin. The programs are presented
by the James Nelson and Anna Louise
Raymond Foundation. Date and titles of
the films follow:

July 7— Bambi

Disney's story of the deer
(repeated by request)

July 14— Nature's Children

Plus preview of Vesta, the
Transparent Dog

July 21 — Seal Island

A Disney "True-Life Adventure"

color movie
Also a cartoon

July 28 — Fairy Stories
Also a cartoon

August 4 — Trailside Adventures

The Museum's own film on what
you might see along trails in
our woodlands and meadows.
Story by Harriet Smith, Chicago
Natural History Museum

August 11 — Nanook of the North
An Eskimo Story

Children may come alone, accompanied
by parents or other adults, or in organized
groups.

Gem Prizes Awarded

GIFTS TO THE MUSEUM

Following is a list of principal gifts
received during the past month:

Department of Anthropology:

From: Victor R. Kohnstamm, Mexico
City — pottery vase in Aztec style, contain-
ing charred human bones

Department of Botany:

From: Holly R. Bennett, Chicago— 238
phanerogams; University of Notre Dame,
Notre Dame, Indiana — 5,329 herbarium
specimens; Dr. W. Rauh, Heidelberg,
Germany — 27 plants, Peru

Department of Zoology:

Barton S. Austin, Woodstock, 111. — bird-
skin; Dorothy Beetle, Laramie, Wyo. —
collection of inland shells. South America;
Dr. Thomas Daggy, Davidson, N.C. — fiat
bug (Nannium pusio Heid.); D. Dwight

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Fifteen trophy cups were awarded by the
Chicago Lapidary Club to the top prize-
winners in the various divisions of the
Amateur Gem and Jewelry Competitive
Exhibition held at the Museum during June.
In the accompanying photograph most of
the cups are displayed by Barbara Twombley
(left) and Wanda Barker, Patricia Stevens
models who posed with selected exhibits at
the Museum for newspaper photographers.
J. Lester Cunningham won two of the three
grand prizes, the Dalzell Trophy for best of
show and the Directors' Trophy. The third
grand prize, called the Presidents' Trophy,
went to Alvin E. Ericson. In addition to
cups, scores of blue, red, and gold ribbons
were awarded. The "rockhounds" of the
lapidary club plan to continue these shows
annually in co-operation with the Museum,
and many members will be working through-
out the year in preparation for the 1956
event.

Davis, Richton Park, III. — 11 rodents,
California; Dr. and Mrs Henry Field,
Coconut Grove, Fla. — collection of sea
shells, Dhahran, Persian Gulf; Dr. John H.
Hendrickson, Singapore — snake; Harry
Hoogstraal, Cairo, Egypt — 17 hedgehogs;
Dr. Robert F. Inger, Homewood, 111. — 2
frogs; Dr. Herbert W. Levi, Madison, Wis.
— 8 salamanders, Colorado; Lincoln Park
Zoo, Chicago — 2 frogs, 2 snakes, lizard; Dr.
Charles Lowe, Tucson, Ariz. — 6 sala-
manders, 7 lizards, 4 snakes, frog. New
Mexico and Arizona; D. C. Lowrie, San
Francisco — 4 frogs, 12 snakes, lizard, Japan;
Ian Moore, El Cajon, Calif. — 8 paratypes
of staphylinid beetles, California and New
Mexico; A. Stanley Rand, Chesterton, Ind.
— 18 lizards; J. M. Weller, Chicago — col-
lection of fresh-water shells, Philippine
Islands

Library:

Contributions of books from: Dr. Karl P.
Schmidt, Homewood, 111.; Luis Angel Aran-
go, Bogota, Colombia; Mr. and Mrs. Paul
A. Benke, Chicago; Estate of Ethelwyn
Sweet Quimby

TWO LECTURE TOURS DAILY
OFFERED IN SUMMER

During July and August, lecture tours of
Museum exhibits will be offered in both the
mornings and the afternoons of weekdays,
Mondays through Fridays inclusive; on
Saturdays and Sundays, tours will be
omitted.

Except on Thursdays, the morning tours
will be devoted to the exhibits in one
specific department. The afternoon tours
(and Thursday morning) will be compre-
hensive in scope, touching on outstanding
exhibits in all departments. Following is
the schedule that will be followed weekly:

Mondays: 11 a.m. — Animals Around the
World
2 P.M. — Highlights of the Exhibits

Tuesdays: 11 a.m. People and Places
2 P.M.— Highlights of the Exhibits

Wednesdays: 11 A.M. — World of Plants
2 P.M. — Highlights of the Exhibits

Thursdays: 11 A.M. and 2 P.M. — Highlights
of the Exhibits

Fridays: 11 A.M. — Records from Rocks
2 P.M.— Highlights of the Exhibits

NEW MEMBERS

(May 16 to June 15)

Contributor

Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Clybome

Associate Members

William A. Armstrong, Dr. Robert Beebe,
Dr. Vincent A. Freda, Henry K. Gardner,
Henry N. Hart, George Hartung, Jr.,
Joseph H. Makler, William A Perry, Charles
R. Swibel, D. H. Wilson

Annual Members

Charles Howard Alberding, Dr. Alvin F.
Bates, Mason L. Bohrer, Michael J. Brady,
William R. Buge, George R. Chadwick, Mrs.
F. Patrick Conlon, Dr. Jack P. Cowen, Earl
D. Crane, Dr. I. Milton Dawson, A. F.
Escudier, Dr. Charles I. Fisher, Miss Anne
Fleischman, Miss Harriett E. Fox, Mrs.
Roston Gore, Mrs. Ivan Hill, Henry A.
Hart, H. E. Jennings, H. J. Jostock, Mrs.
Estelle Joy, John J. Kapov, Dr. Frank B.
Kelly, Allan B. Kline, R. H. Lamberton,
William B. Latta, Leon Lonnes, Bert Lozins,
John F. Mannion, Mrs. Lawrence E. Norem,
Stewart Patterson, Walter C. Rundin, Jr.,
Robert James Sadlek, Nelson D. Stoker,
Binford H. Sykes, George C. Tracy, Dr.
Paul C. Tracy, Wheeler Tracy, Mrs. G. R.
Walker, Kenneth L. Weeks, George R.
White, Bennett Williams, Mrs. Jack A.
Williamson, Harold F. Wood, Dr. A. W.
Woods

"Man-killing fishes" — the "500-volt" elec-
tric eel, the piranha or cannibal fish of the
Guianas and Brazil, and sharks — are among
the exhibits in Hall O.

PRINTED BY CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PRESS

Vol.26. No. 8-August-1955

Chicago Natural
History Museum

^^.f^^

Page 2

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

August, 1955

Chicago Natural History Museum

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893

Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago 5

Telephone: W Abash 2-9410

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lester Armour Henry P. Isham

Sbwell L. Avery Hughston M. McBain

Wm. McCormick Blair William H. Mitchell

Walther Buchen John T. Pirie, Jr.

Walter J. Cummings Clarence B. Randall

Joseph N. Field George A. Richardson

Marshall Field John G. Searlb

Marshall Field, Jr. Solomon A. Smith

Stanley Field Louis Ware

Samuel Insull, Jr. John P. Wilson

OFFICERS

Stanley Field President

Marshall Field Firtt Vice-President

Hughston M. McBain Second Vice-President

Joseph N. Field Third Vice-President

Solomon A. Smith Treasurer

Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary

John R. Millar Assistant Secretary

THE BULLETIN

EDITOR
Clifford C. Gregg Director of the Museum

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology

Theodor Just Chief Curator of Botany

Sharat K. Roy Chief Curator of Geology

Austin L. Rand Chief Curator of Zoology

MANAGING EDITOR
H. B. Harte Public Relations CouTlsel

ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Helen A. MacMinn Jane Rockwell

Members arc requested to inform the Museum
promptly of changes of address.

REPRODUCTION IN BIRDS

By AUSTIN L. RAND
chief curator of zoology

Living things diflfer from inanimate ones
in being irritable, in growing, and in repro-
ducing themselves, and the combination
of these three attributes is unique. It is
the third of these attributes of life, repro-
duction, as it takes place in birds, with which
an exhibit in Boardman Conover Hall (Hall
21) is concerned.

There was a time when it was believed
by everyone that "spontaneous generation"
took place, that dirt bred flies, mud bred
worms, cheese bred mice, and the like.
Now we know this to be a fallacy, and that
all life comes from pre-existing life. The
torch of life is handed on from parent to
offspring, from generation to generation.
Its origin need not concern us here. What
we are concerned with is reproduction in
birds as an illustration of the basic mecha-
nism of this transmittal.

All birds reproduce by laying eggs. It is
the female, of course, that lays the eggs,
but each parent (male and female) contrib-
utes a germ cell to the egg. A female bird
may lay eggs, even when there has been no
male bird present and no mating has taken
place. This is the usual thing in poultry
farms where no roosters are kept. Cage
birds, parrots or canaries that have been
kept alone for years, may sometimes

suddenly lay eggs, much to the astonishment
of their owners. But such eggs lack the
male germ cell and are infertile. They will
not produce chicks.

COLOR DIFFERENCES OF SEXES

The bobwhite quail was selected to illus-
trate "the bird" in the exhibit. The male
quail is more brightly marked than the
female, as is frequently the case when the
sexes are different in color, though in some
species of birds the female is brighter.

Carved models illustrate the gonads, as the
essential reproductive organs are called, and
their ducts. The section dealing with the
male shows the position of the reproductive
organs in the body. The paired gonads or
testes lie on the upper wall of the body
cavity on each side of the mid-line, adjacent
to the kidneys. These produce the male
germ cells or spermatozoa, collectively
referred to as the sperm. From the testes
lead the two sperm ducts, which carry the
sperm into the enlarged terminal portion of
the intestines, the cloaca. From here the
spermatozoa are discharged through the
anus during copulation.

The exhibit includes an enlarged model of
a number of spermatozoa. Each sperma-
tozoon is composed of a head and a long
tail or flagellum by means of which it swims.
Spermatozoa are transferred from the male
to the female at copulation, when the
cloacas of the two birds are brought into
contact (in some birds an organ of intro-
mission is present). The spermatozoa swim
up the oviduct of the female to meet the
descending egg, and one of them fertilizes
the egg.

On the opposite side of the same panel
in the exhibit are the female reproduc-
tive organs. In most female birds there is
but a single female gonad, or ovary. It lies
on the left side of the mid-line of the body,
against the kidney. Here the female germ
cells or eggs ripen one by one and receive a
layer of egg yolk, which is food for the
embryo. The ripened egg is shed from its
ruptured capsule, finds its way into the
entrance of the oviduct, and starts down.
In the upper part of the oviduct the egg is
fertilized by a spermatozoon. Then, as it
passes down this tube, the white or albumen
of the egg is laid down, then the membranes,
and finally in the lower part of the oviduct
the shell and its color are added. The egg
is then ready for laying. It is expelled
from the oviduct into the cloaca, which is
the common chamber where oviduct and
intestines meet, and through the anus.

EGG NUMBERS VARY

The number of eggs laid by wild birds
varies. There may be only one, as with
some sea birds and many tropical pigeons;
or there may be two eggs, as with our ruby-
throated hummingbird, or a clutch of a
dozen or so eggs, as with many gallinaceous
birds and ducks. Sometimes if one egg is
removed from the clutch during the laying

-THIS MONTH'S COVBH-

The campflre scene on our cover
shows Chellean Man of 250,000
years ago as he is reconstructed in
one of the eight dioramas by the
late Frederick Blaschke in the
Museum's Hall of the Stone Age
of the Old World (Hall C). The
Chelleans were the earliest human
beings of whom there is evidence
in Europe. On page 3 Curator
George Langford claims for them
the world's first invention and
relates how he, in the name of The
Man of Chelles, formally applied
to the U. S. Patent Office for
recognition of this claim.

period, an additional egg may be laid to
replace it. There is a record of a flicker
that was thus induced to lay more than
70 eggs in a season. The domestic hen, in
the course of its long period of domestica-
tion, has come to lay an egg daily over long
periods.

Most of the growth of the embryo in the
egg takes place after the egg is laid. The
heat necessary for this growth is ordinarily
supplied by the parent's body. The female
usually broods the eggs. In some species
the male and the female alternate, and in
some rare cases the male alone may nestle
down on the eggs and brood. There are a
few that do not brood at all — for example,
the mound builders or megapodes of the
Australian area do not incubate their eggs
by brooding but bury them in the ground
where the soil provides the necessary heat
for the embryos to develop.

Within the egg the embryo depends on
the stored food, the yolk and the white of
the egg. The time of development (the
incubation period) varies. The young of
our quail hatch in about twenty-three days.
In some species, such as many of the
warblers, the incubation period may be
slightly less than two weeks; in others, for
example certain albatrosses, it may be
nearly nine weeks.

For some little time before the egg hatches,
the quail chick may be heard chirping in the
egg. At hatching time the bill, armed with
a small transitory projection on its tip —
the egg tooth — works against the shell and
breaks through. The chick twists and breaks
the shell until it falls apart, and the newly
hatched chick lies wet and nearly helpless
in the nest. Within a few hours the chick
is dry and able to follow the mother quail.

Not all young birds hatch in such an
advanced stage. Some are nearly helpless
for a long period after hatching and need
to be cared for in the nest. This aspect of
the question deals with the growth of young
birds and is taken up in a near-by com-
panion screen.

August, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 3

PATENT APPLIED FOR-ON 250,000^YEAR-OLD INVENTION

By GEORGE LANGFORD

CURATOR OF FOSSIL PLANTS

IN THE EARLY PART of 1937 I filed
an application in the United States
Patent Office, Washington, D.C., on the
world's first invention of which there was
positive and abundant evidence.

It was the first recorded application of its
kind. In making it, my customary role was
reversed because in this case I was acting as
patent attorney and my client was The Man
of Chelles, a symbolic individual represent-
ing a group of men (Abbevillian) living
on the banks of the Marne River, now the
town of Chelles, in France near Paris.

The invention claimed for my client was
a flaked flint tool about the size and shape
of a man's hand. Since I was familiar with
U. S. Patent Office procedure, my applica-
tion was filed in the ordinary formal manner,
and it received the usual routine attention
from the U. S. Patent Examiner. There
was no prior art, and the granting of the
patent devolved upon the date of applica-
tion. According to the rules, an inventor
was required to file his application promptly
after his invention was put into practical
use. As my client's invention dated back
about 250,000 years and the application was
filed in A.D. 1937, the vast discrepancy in
time precluded the granting of a patent.

OFFICIAL RECOGNITION

I was well aware of this obstacle in the
first place. I filed the application not in
a spirit of levity but for the serious purpose
of determining from those skilled in di-
agnosing inventive merit my client's claim
to one of the world's most important in-
ventions. In response, my application as
drawn was published in the Journal of the
Patent Office Society (May, 1937, pp. 346-
350) along with other U. S. patents issued
at that time. Eventually the U. S. Patent
Office Examiner recognized the merit of the
invention although no patent could be
granted because of the long delay in filing
the claim.

The many inventions of modern times
had small beginnings. This is true of all
of them. There are many groups of hun-
dreds or thousands of inventions, each
group stemming from a single conception,
seemingly ridiculously small when compared
with its vast progeny.

The Man of Chelles shaped a flint with
two cutting edges converging to a piercing
point, which enabled it to penetrate flesh
and bone. We call it a "hand stone"
because it is believed to have been held and
used in the bare hand. Later it was at-
tached to a wooden shaft. Spear, arrow,
ax, dagger, and sword all emanated from
my client's invention of two cutting edges
converging to a piercing point. Trivial as
this may seem, it was an important step
toward our modern civilization.

The hand stone was conceived thousands
of years before man used metals in place
of stone. In his quest for food, Abbevillian
(or Chellean) man competed with mammoth
elephants, rhinoceroses, lions, and other
animals of .species now extinct. He was learn-
ing how to use his hands for the making of
tools and weapons to meet this competition.
He may have conceived inventions other
than the hand stone but we have no knowl-
edge of them. The only evidence is the
flints he shaped and used. Many of them
have been found near Chelles and else-
where, together with hammerstones and

WORLD'S FIRST INVENTION
Sharpened hand stone of Chellean Man of 250.000
years ago. It was the device that led to the later
development of spear, arrow, ax, dagger, and sword
— all, like it, based upon the principle of two cut-
ting edges converging to a sharp point.

flint flakes, showing where and how The Man
of Chelles made his tools. They were made
rather roughly by striking off flakes from
a flint lump with a large pebble used as
a hammer.

SUCCESSIVE CULTURES

There followed a period of Acheulean
culture when the flint edges were made
straighter and sharper by finer flaking.
Mousterian culture succeeded the Acheu-
lean. Up to this point there are no records
of the men themselves in the form of skeletal
parts, but Mousterian tools have been
found in association with the skeletons of
Neanderthal man. A step closer to modern
man occurred with the appearance in the
next period of people whose culture is known
as Aurignacian. These newcomers were
Cro-Magnons. They made and used arti-
facts of bone as well as stone. They were

the first artists who made sculptures, draw-
ings, and paintings of animals on the walls
and ceilings of their cave dwellings beneath
overhanging cliffs. Their bonework and
artistry were carried through the Solutrean
into the next or Magdalenian stage of
civilization, and the Paleolithic or Old
Stone Age neared its close at the end of the
Azilian era, about 10,000 years ago.

The names of all of these periods are
derived from French towns near which man's
works were first discovered. Not until the
Neolithic or New Stone Age did man learn
the use of metals after chipped flints had
served as his basic tools for more than
200,000 years. Chellean Man's hand stone
was a long time in attaining its final per-
fection.

However, the claim is open to challenge —
the patent perhaps rightfully belongs to
some African of hundreds of thousands of
years ago, as recent evidence seems to
indicate that the earliest man and the
earliest tools were in Africa rather than
Europe or elsewhere.

All of the prehistoric peoples mentioned
herein — Chellean, Mousterian (Neander-
thal), Aurignacian, Solutrean, Magdalenian,
Azilian, and Neolithic — are represented in
life-size restorations in a series of dioramas
exhibited in the Museum's Hall of the Stone
Age of the Old World (Hall C).

TWO MORE FREE MOVIES

FOR CHILDREN

The final free programs in the Raymond
Foundation's summer series of movies for
children will be given in the James Simpson
Theatre of the Museum on the mornings
of the first two Thursdays in August.
There will be two showings of the films on
each program, at 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. Dates
and titles of the films follow:

August 4 — Trailside Adventures

The Museum's own film on what
you might see along trails in
our woodlands and meadows.
Story by Harriet Smith, Chicago
Natural History Museum

August 11 — Nanook of the North
An Eskimo Story

Dendrological Expedition

An expedition to collect western species
of dendrological material, both conifers and
broad-leaved trees, will get under way with
the departure early in August of Emil Sella,
Curator of Exhibits in the Department of
Botany. Oregon will be the principal field
of collecting activities, but Curator Sella
may work also in neighboring states.

Page i

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

August, 1955

DEFLATING THE DINOSAURS: THEY WERE NOT ALL GL4.NTS

By jane ROCKWELL

ALTHOUGH man has lived on earth
approximately one million years, dino-
saurs maintained their reign for an estimated
125 million years. Our complex modern age
is considered a time of increasing speciali-
zation, but the prehistoric dinosaurs were

VERY EARLY AMERICAN

One of the duck-billed dinosaurs, Hadrosaurus, was

bipedal, but could walk on all fours if necessary.

Skeleton of this creature was the first dinosaur to

be found and described in North America.

masters of specialization — in their own,
often complicated way.

Ranking with Egyptian mummies and
restorations of prehistoric men as the most
asked-about exhibits in Chicago Natural
History Museum, dinosaur skeletons may
be seen in Ernest R. Graham Hall of His-
torical Geology (Hall 38). Other skeletons
and miscellaneous bones are available for
study by scientists and students in the
reference collections of the Department of
Geology. Additions are made as frequently
as suitable new specimens can be obtained.
Only recently, a skeleton of Protoceratops,
one of the most interesting types, was added
to Hall 38. A remarkable specimen of the
giant carnivorous Gorgosaurus, a gift to the
Museum by members of the Board of Trus-
tees, is now in preparation in the Museum
laboratories and is expected to go on exhibi-
tion sometime next year.

Dinosaurs are of special interest to the
public because so many of them are spec-
tacular in size and grotesque in form. But
many persons fail to realize that there are
several types which did not attain impressive
size; some true dinosaurs were no larger than
our present-day rooster. Dinosaurs are
worthy of study for many reasons other than
their giant size, terrifying aspect, and
undersized brain.

Dinosaurs lived during the Mesozoic era,
which began some 200 million years ago and
ended about 75 million years ago. During
this time they were represented by a fan-

tastic array of plant-eating and carnivorous
creatures that inhabited uplands, swamps,
rivers, and lakes, or even climbed trees.
Dinosaurs were among the most successful
of the backboned animals living on earth if
their duration in relation to the earth's
history is considered. Evolutionary pro-
cesses were responsible for a constant change
and specialization in the creatures so as to
adapt them to their changing environments.

"terrible lizard"

Related to crocodiles, snakes, and lizards,
dinosaurs were cold-blooded reptiles whose
name was derived when an English paleon-
tologist and anatomist. Sir Richard Owen,
invented the name Dinosauria from the
Greek deinos ("terrible") and sauros ("liz-
ard") more than one hundred years ago.
Since that time dinosaurs have been classi-
fied in two separate orders: Saurischia
(reptile hips), in which the pelvic bones
were arranged in typical reptile form, and
Ornithischia (bird hips), in which the bones
of the pelvis were constructed along more
bird-like lines. Consequently the word
dinosaur does not refer to any single or
natural group of reptiles. Although it is a
loose term, the word is useful in describing
members of both orders.

During their life on earth, the general
trend of both saurischian and ornithisch-
ian orders was toward an increasingly
large size and a modification of their original
two-legged posture. As some of them grew
larger, they became too bulky to be sup-
ported on two legs. Only the carnivorous
theropods of the saurischian order retained
the purely bipedal pose, while the others
reverted to wholly or partially quadrupedal
poses. The front legs even of those that
were purely quadrupedal nearly always
were smaller than the hind legs — an inheri-

tance from their bipedal ancestors, the
thecodonts of the early Triassic period
(some 200 million years ago.)

The culmination of size and development
in the theropods came with Tyrannosaurtts
— named the king of dinosaurs — largest and
most terrifying of the land-living carnivores.
Fifty feet long, the giant's head was about
18 or 20 feet above the ground. It is esti-
mated that the beast weighed between eight
and ten tons. Akin to Tyrannosaurus was
Gorgosaurus, a creature somewhat smaller
in form and showing lesser degrees of speciali-
zation. The skeleton of Gorgosaurus now
being assembled at the Museum is about
forty feet long.

Another example of the great degree of
specialization found in dinosaurs is Struth-
iomimus, the ostrich dinosaur, also a the-
ropod. A dinosaur of medium size, this
animal's ancestors turned from a flesh-
eating to a plant-eating diet. While most

DISTINGUISHED SPECIES

Skeleton of Protoceratops, recently installed in

Hall 38 of Museum. This ceratopsian is the only

dinosaur ever found with its eggs.

Copyright Chicago Natural History Museum

FORMIDABLE WEAPON CARRIER
Stegosaurus had a series of upright, triangular plates
on its back, slanted alternately to right or left, be-
lieved to have served as defensive armor. Tip of the
animaPs tail bore four huge spikes. One of the series
of twenty-eight murals in Ernest R. Graham Hall
(Hall 38). By the late Charles R. Knight.

theropods had medium or short necks,
Struthiomimus had a long bird-like neck and
no teeth in its beak-like jaws.

LAND-LIVING GIANTS
Members, also, of Saurischia were the
sauropods — the giants of the dinosaurian
world and the giants of all time, so far as
our knowledge of the land life of the past
goes. Only the huge whales of the sea have
exceeded them in size. Beginning with
Plateosaurus, which was 20 feet long and
notable for its long tail, neck and compar-
atively small head, and including the Juras-
sic period's Apalosaurus (formerly called
Brontosaurus) , Camarasaurus, and Brachio-
saurus, the sauropods had a long and event-
ful history. Typical was the plant-eating
Apalosaurus, which carried its great weight,
distributed over some 50 or 60 feet, on all
fours. Another North American form,
Diplodocus, was similar to Apalosaurus ex-
cept that its nostrils were placed on top of

August, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 5

Copyright Chicago N.itjral History Museum

WIDE VARIATIONS AMONG DINOSAURS SHOWN IN MUSEUM MURAL
Painting in Ernest R. Graham (Hall 38) shows five kinds of dinosaurs; crested legged animal in foreground), bird-like dinosaurs (middle distance), and three

dinosaur (far left), hooded dinosaurs (left, distance), armored dinosaur (short' I erect hadrosaurs (right, foreground). A mural by the late Charles R. Knight.

its head, an adaptation to life in the water.
This characteristic was further emphasized
in Brachiosaurus, the largest of the sauro-
pods, whose nostrils were raised in a sort of
dome atop its head, so that the animal
could thrust its head periscope-fashion
above the water to breathe and survey its
surroundings. Brachiosaurus was unlike its
sauropod relatives in that its forelegs were
longer than its hind legs.

Reptiles included in Ornithischia were, in
general, more highly evolved than members
of Saurischia. While saurischians resembled
their ancestors in the arrangement of their
pelvic bones, ornithischians evolved so that
there was a rotation of the pubic bone so that
it occupied a position parallel to the ischium,
and caused a growth of a new bony process

at the base of the pubis which gave added
support to the belly. Specialization was
more advanced in this order, too, especially
in the head and teeth. While Saurischia
passed through the major phases of their
evolution in Jurassic times (about 160 mil-
lion years ago), Ornithischia experienced
their chief evolutionary development in
Cretaceous times (approximately 130 million
years ago).

THE DUCK-BILLED GROUP

Least "advanced" of this order were the
ornithopods, a large group which included
the duck-billed dinosaurs and their relatives.
The little specialized Camptosaurus and
Iguanodon were members of this group.
Both these creatures were bipedal, but they

could walk on all fours if necessary. The
front part of their beak-like jaws had no
teeth, although flat blade-like teeth were to
be found in the back part of their jaws.
Iguanodon is of particular interest because
it was the first dinosaur to be scientifically
described. In 1882, Mrs. Gideon Mantell,
the wife of a famous paleontologist, found
some peculiar teeth in the Lower Cretaceous
beds of Sussex, England. Dinosaurs were
unheard of at that time and the teeth were
thought to be those of a rhinoceros. Later,
more bones were found in the quarry where
the original discovery was made and these
were described as belonging to a hippo-
potamus. Finally, after more study, it was
concluded that the bones were those of a
(Continued on page 7, column 1 )

Copyright Chicago Natuial History Museum

PLANT-EATING GIANT

One of the largest land animals ever known is Apatosaurus (formerly called [ heavier than its front limbs. Apatosaurus lived about 145 million years ago

Brontosaurus). A four-footed plant-eater, its hind limbs were larger and

and att lined a length of approximately 50 feet. Painting by Charles R. Knight.

Page 6

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

August, 1955

WHY SOME 'AIR FERNS' NEED NO SUN OR WATER

By THEODOR JUST

CHIEF CURATOR, DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY

ACCORDING TO CLAIMS made by
many American stores, Japanese air
plant or air fern sold by them in three pop-
ular varieties (green, red, and brown) needs
neither water nor sunlight to grow. Ac-
tually it does very well without both, being

Drawing by Jean Pearson

'PLANT' THAT'S AN ANIMAL

Japanese air plant or air fern— a zoophyte. At left is a colony of sea-cypress,

Thuiaria cupressina; at right, a greatly enlarged portion showing individual

hydranths and their position.

the dried, prepared, and dyed exo-skeleton
of a dead colonial marine animal belonging
to the phylum Coelenterata. This phylum
includes some of the most beautiful seden-
tary or free-swimming marine invertebrates
such as hydroids and hydromedusae, jelly-
fishes, sea anemones, and corals.

In the older literature, these plant-like
animals together with sponges and other
forms (ascidians) were treated as zoophytes
because of their striking resemblance to
certain plants. The species most commonly
sold in the East is Thuiaria cupressina or
sea-cypress which is called sea moss in the
British trade and Neptune's fern in Chicago
chain stores. Its close relative, Thuiaria
argentea, is known as squirrel's tail. Both
species are abundant in the North Atlantic,

especially in the English Channel and the
Gulf of Maine and on offshore banks. Thui-
aria argentea is also known from the eastern
Pacific, ranging from Alaska to San Fran-
cisco Bay, where its silvery colonies are often
washed ashore by storms. Dry beach ma-
terial of these white colonies is easily col-
lected, dyed, and sold as Christmas deco-
rations. Sea moss is regularly harvested by
a large fleet of small vessels operating drags
in the Thames estuary. It is sold mainly
by British Artificial Flowers, Ltd., London.

MODES OF LIFE

Unlike the small solitary fresh-water polyp
known as Hydra, most marine hydroids are
colonial forms consisting of thousands of
individual animals. Colonies of these two
species of Thuiaria may be 12 inches or more
long, but those of other species may be
several feet in length. Usually they are
attached to rocks or other substrate by a
root-like base from which spring the delicate
branched stems (hy-
drocauli) bearing hun-
dreds of minute
polyps.

Most polyps are
hydranths (feeding
polyps) that capture
microscopic organ-
isms. The reproduc-
tive polyps, called
gonangia, are less com-
mon and usually
larger and different in
shape. The common
stem is made up of the
external, transparent,
non-cellular perisarc,
mostly yellowish or
brown in color and
chitinous in composi-
tion, and of the inter-
nal, cellular, hollow
coenosarc that con-
nects the various
polyps. Digested food
passes through the coensarc.

Reproduction is both asexual by budding
and sexual by means of free-swimming um-
brella-shaped medusae. Fertilized eggs give
rise to minute ciliated larvae (planulae)
that soon settle down and develop into new
polyps. This regular sequence of a sexual
and asexual generation is known as alter-
nation of generations or metagenesis.

REAL AIR PLANTS

To botanists the term air plant (epiphyte)
has a very different meaning, referring to
plants found growing on branches of trees
where they can obtain more light. They use
larger plants as substrate without entering
into any nutritional relationship with them.
Air plants are particularly common in the

tropics and warmer regions. One of the
best known examples is the Spanish moss of
the southern states, a member of the pine-
apple family. Certain ferns, orchids, and
bromeliads represent the most common air
plants.

Japanese air plant or sea moss has been
on the market for some time. In 1910 Dr.
E. F. Bigelow of Harvard University identi-
fied it as a colonial hydroid. I am greatly
indebted to Miss Edith M. Vincent, Re-
search Librarian, for calling this fact to my
attention and to Dr. Fenner A. Chace, Jr.,
Curator of Marine Invertebrates, U. S.
National Museum, Washington, D.C., and
Dr. A. K. Totton, British Museum of Nat-
ural History, London, for verifying my
identification and providing other pertinent
data.

Books

(All books reviewed in the Bulletin are
available in The Book Shop of the Museum.
Mail orders accompanied by remittance in-
cluding postage are promptly filled.)

MARINE SHELLS OF THE WESTERN
COAST OF FLORIDA. By Louise M.
Perry and Jeanne S. Schwengel. Paleon-
tological Research Institution, Ithaca,
New York, 1955. 318 pages, 55 plates.
Cloth-bound $7, paper-bound $6.

This is the revised and enlarged edition
of a book that was published in 1940 and
generally praised by reviewers. Publica-
tions on the mollusk faunas of large stretches
of ocean coastlines are not uncommon. The
restriction to a special portion of the coast
of one individual state was something new.
What such a book lacked in number of
species listed was largely made up by a more
detailed account of life-conditions and habits
within the chosen area. Thus the book
when it was first published was a success,
and the revised and enlarged edition of 1955
can expect to fare even better with critics
as well as with shell collectors. Additional
species reported within the past fifteen years
have been added, and new observations,
especially on the laying of eggs, the nature
of the egg-capsules, the hatching of the
young snail, and the shape of its shells, have
expanded the text and are shown in excellent
figures on additional plates. In short,
everything that was good and praiseworthy
in the first edition is improved in the present
one. I am sarry to say that the only defect
of the old edition, the explanation, in foot-
notes, of the Greek and Latin scientific
shell names, apparently has been taken over
unchanged and is, therefore, as bad as it was.
However, this is my only negative criticism
of the book, and this flaw by no means
impairs the book's usefulness.

Fritz Haas
Curator of Lower Invertebrates

August, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 7

DINOSAURS—

(Continued from page 5)

new type of reptile with teeth like the
present-day iguana; hence the name Iguan-
odon. At first the animal was restored as a
four-footed creature, but later discovery of
seventeen skeletons in a mine in Belgium
proved it to have been bipedal.

The ornithopods reached their height of
development in the hadrosaurs. They were
partially bipedal and partially quadrupedal
in gait. Their skulls and jaws were broad-
ened in front into a flat duck-like bill and
their toes were webbed to accommodate
them for water-life. Several other forms, pos-
sessing similar characteristics, also existed in
various parts of North America. Accom-
panying Gorgosaurus in the exhibit now in
preparation at the Museum is a duck-billed
dinosaur, Lambeosaurus, that will be shown
as the prey of the giant carnivore.

Two groups of Ornithischia that were strik-
ingly different from their relatives were the
Stegosauria and Ankylosauria. Stegosaurus,
a typical representative of the former, was
large and completely quadrupedal but with
its front legs considerably smaller than its
hind legs. Down the middle of its back was
a series of upright triangular plates, arranged
alternately, while the tip of its tail bore four
huge spikes — effective as a weapon against
its adversaries. Larger than an elephant,
Stegosaurus had a brain the approximate
size of a walnut. The skull of Ankylosaurus
was protected by armor plates and its arched
back was completely encased in armor. The
animal's heavy .stiff tail ended in a huge
club-like mass of bone. Squat Ankylosaurus
seems to have been the armored tank of
its day.

HORNED DINOSAURS

Last to appear in the long procession of
dinosaurs on earth were the Ceratopsia or
horned dinosaurs, thought to have descend-
ed from a small bipedal animal, Psittaco-
saurus of Lower Cretaceous times. The
earliest known ceratopsian is Protoceratops,
which was from five to six feet long, entirely
quadrupedal, and notable for its relatively
large head. The front part of the animal's
face formed a hooked, parrot-like beak and
the back of the skull extended in a pierced
or fenestrated "frill" that overhung its neck
and shoulder region. Protoceratops had no
teeth in the front part of its jaws except two
tiny vestigial teeth on each side near the
front part of the upper jaws — a carry-over
from a more primitive stage of development.
Although classified as a horned dinosaur,
this creature had only the beginnings of a
nasal horn and had not developed the
specializations of the larger ceratopsians
of the future, notably Triceratops.

A great deal is known about Protoceratops
because a number of skeletons and a large
series of skulls have been found that reveal

'BROWNIES' STAGE AN EXHIBITION AT MUSEUM

Providing a charming background for their
puppet creations, four enthusiastic members
of Brownie Troop 360 of Chicago pose with
their handiwork, part of the Brownies' ex-
hibit on display through August 12 in
Stanley Field Hall. The Brownies (left to
right) are Maralyn Shulman, Robbin Sig-
band, Irene Silverman, and Susan Moestue.

They are junior members of the Girl Scouts
who have successfully completed an "Ex-
pedition Make-Believe" to foreign lands
(via Museum exhibits) provided by the
Museum's Raymond Foundation. They and
other Brownies successfully completing the
project received expedition certificates sign-
ed by Colonel CHfford C. Gregg, Director.

nearly all the creature's stages of growth.
From these it has been learned that the frill
on the back of its skull was not present
when the reptile was born. It grew as
Protoceratops grew and became fully devel-
oped when the creature was mature. Scien-
tists have concluded that the frill protected
the neck and served as an attachment for
the powerful muscles that controlled the
movements of the head. Found along with
the bones of Protoceratops were nests of eggs
— the only dinosaur eggs ever discovered in
association with skeletons. Two of the eggs
contained the bones of unhatched embryos.
These findings indicate that probably all
dinosaurs were egg-layers. From these small
beginnings, the giant horned dinosaurs, such
as Triceratops, evolved. They attained a
length of from 20 to 30 feet and were ad-
versaries of the gigantic Tyrannosaurus of
Latest Cretaceous times.

By the end of the Cretaceous age, all of
the dinosaurs had disappeared from the
earth. Precisely why these reptiles became
extinct is not known. Food may have been
a factor. During the rise of land levels,
when mountains were formed, changes in
vegetation occurred. Plants which had
served as food for the dinosaurs disappeared
or were replaced by other kinds of plants
which may have been unsuitable to the
creatures' diets. As the herbivorous dino-
saurs began to vanish, so must have the

carnivores who fed upon them. The earth's
surface may have changed too rapidly for
the dinosaurs, so that their evolutionary
changes and specializations were unable to
keep pace. This is only one of many sup-
positions. The extinction of any group of
organisms is a result of a complex interrac-
tion of many factors, most of which, unfor-
tunately, are of such a nature as to leave
no trace in the record of the rocks.

Daily "Journeys to China"
for Young Travelers

China is the destination of children par-
ticipating in the Museum Travelers program
of the Raymond Foundation during August.
The travelers may "board airliners" at the
North or South Entrance of the Museum
at any hour on any day, from 9 a.m. to 4:30
P.M. "Passports" and "travel instructions"
may be picked up at either entrance of the
Museum.

Ceramic Expert Dies

The Museum regretfully records the
death on July 17 of John Louis Pletinckx,
Ceramic Restorer in the Department of
Anthropology since 1939. Mr. Pletinckx
was born in 1892 in Brussels, Belgium.
He was educated in England before coming
to America.

Page 8

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

August, 1955

TWO LECTURE TOURS DAILY
OFFERED IN AUGUST

During August, lecture tours of Museum
exhibits will be offered in both the mornings
and the afternoons of weekdays, Mondays
through Fridays inclusive; on Saturdays and
Sundays, tours will be omitted.

Except on Thursdays, the morning tours
will be devoted to the exhibits in one
specific department. The afternoon tours
(and Thursday morning) will be compre-
hensive in scope, touching on outstanding
exhibits in all departments. Following is
the schedule that will be followed weekly:

Mondays: 11 a.m. — The World of Animals
, 2 P.M. — General Toiu-

Tuesdays: 11 a.m. — Places and People
2 P.M. — General Tour

Wednesdays: 11 A.M.— The World of Plants
2 P.M. — General Tour

Thursdays: 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. — General
Tour

Fridays: 11 A.M. — Records from the Rocks
2 P.M. — General Tour

CHIEF GEOLOGIST RETURNS
FROM VOLCANO STUDY

Dr. Sharat K. Roy, Chief Curator of
Geology, returned in July from Central
America where he was engaged in field
studies on active volcanoes for the past
three months. This was in continuation
of the studies he began some five years ago.

In EI Salvador, Izalco offered him a rare
opportunity to observe how a volcano
shatters and rebuilds itself. On February
28, following a glowing avalanche that
rolled down the northwest flank of Izalco,
the volcano, with a thunderous roar that
shook the countryside and could be heard
for many miles about, blew its top off and
split its side, belching forth incandescent
lava, steam, and other gases. As late as two
weeks ago, Izalco was erupting every few
minutes, but it appeared to be on the mend.
Already a cinder cone has sprung up over
the old crater. As in all volcanoes, Izalco's
wounds will heal, but the scars will remain.
Dr. Roy says.

In Nicaragua, the volcanoes Momotombo
and Cerro Negro were of special interest to
Dr. Roy, for both are active and both are
growing.

Staff Illustrator Appointed

E. John Pfiffner, who has been appoint-
ed Staff Illustrator of the Museum, is
a graduate of Wisconsin State College,
Milwaukee, and of the Chouinard Art
Institute of Los Angeles. He studied also
at the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota,

Florida. He has taught art at high schools
in Wisconsin, served as a muralist for var-
ious organizations, and has illustrated
a number of books for various publishers.
His duties will consist of the varied types
of art work required by the departments,
divisions, and administration of the Museum
and may range from large mural paintings
in oil to minutely detailed illustrations for
scientific publications.

STAFF NOTES

Dr. Fritz Haas, Curator of Lower In-
vertebrates, attended the annual meeting
of the West Coast Branch of the American
Malacological Union last month at Leland
Stanford University, California .... Philip
Hershliovitz, Associate Curator of Mam-
mals, was the Museum's representative at
the meetings of the American Society of
Mammalogists, where he presented a paper
on zoogeographic subdivisions of neotropical
regions .... Miss Margaret G. Bradbury,
Artist in the Department of Zoology, has
resigned to accept a fellowship at Leland
Stanford University, where she will teach
art and at the same time engage in advanced
ichthyological studies .... Dr. Julian A.
Steyermark, Curator of the Phanerogamic
Herbarium, spoke on wild flowers before the
Skokie Garden Club .... Miss Marion K.
Hoffman, Museum Bookkeeper since 1952,
has been promoted to Assistant Auditor
.... Miss Lillian A. Ross, Associate
Editor of Scientific Publications, spoke on
spiders before the Barrington Natural
History Society. Miss Ross, who is also
Associate in Insects, recently returned from
Europe where she studied spider collections
at the British Museum (Natural History)
in London, Museum National d'Histoire
Naturelle in Paris, and Senckenberg Mu-
seum in Frankfurt, Germany.

NEW MEMBERS

(June 16 to July 15)

Associate Members

George L. Clements, John L. Dole, Mrs.
G. Corson Ellis, Mrs. Katherine C. Fin-
negan, Clarence E. Freeto, R. B. Whitaker

Non-Resident Associate Member

Miss Velma D. Whipple

Annual Members

Kurt J. Ackermann, Miss Edith P. Baxter,
James D. Beckett, D. C. Bell, Samuel W.
Block, Albert G. Buhring, Charles J. Burg,
Frederick S. Crane, Jr., Theodore L. Dahl-
berg, George De Marke, Joseph P. Demme,
Charles W. Desgrey, J. Russell Duncan,
William E. Durham, Frank M. Eckert,
David C. Eisendrath, Dr. Casper M.
Epsteen, Harvey Epstein, Dr. Benum W.
Fox, Walter R. Frank, S. L. Goodfriend,
Mrs. Leroy F. Harza, Paul H. Heineke,
Ben W. Heineman, Dr. J. Henry Heinen,
Jr., Harry Jaffe, Ray Prescott Johnson,

GIFTS TO THE MUSEUM

DURING PAST MONTH

Following is a list of principal gifts
received during the past month:

Department of Anthropology:

From: Dr. Andrew G. Bustin, Joliet, 111.
— funeral urn, Mexico, and bronze censor,
China; Dr. Mathew Taubenhaus, Chicago —
2 pre-Columbian pottery vessels, Panama;
Robert Trier, Chicago — 34 specimens of
stone, bone, and wood, New Zealand

Department of Botany:

From: Federal Ministry of Agriculture,
southern Rhodesia — 9 seeds (Leguminosae) ;
Joliet Township High School, Joliet, 111. —
319 miscellaneous phanerogams; Dr. Earl
E. Sherff, Chicago — 2 African plants,
Hawaiian plant; U.S. Department of Agri-
culture, Washington, D.C. — isotype of a
subspecies of Ilex, Florida

Department of Geology;

From: Dr. G. Arthur Cooper, Washington,
D.C. — fossil-bearing limestone. Glass Moun-
tains, Texas; Clarence Johnsen, Chicago —
70 ore specimens, Arizona; Loyola Univer-
sity, Chicago — fossil elasmobranch teeth,
New Mexico; Nancy Robertson, Chicago —
collection of fossil invertebrates, Michigan,
Wisconsin, and Illinois

Dr. Ruth Marshall Dies

Dr. Ruth Marshall, Research Associate
in Arachnids, Department of Zoology, died
May 12 at the age of 86. Dr. Marshall did
much of the basic work on description and
classification of North American water
mites and was one of the relatively few
women ever to acquire an international
reputation as a systematic zoologist. She
received her Ph.D. degree in zoology at the
University of Nebraska in 1907 and served
as chairman of the department of biology of
Rockford College for twenty years. Re-
tiring in 1935, she continued her studies
of the water mites until 1944, when she
published her fortieth and last research
paper. In 1915 she deposited her scientific
library and her collection in Chicago
Natural History Museum. Her water-mite
collection, which is the most important
in the western hemisphere, contains the
types of about 85 per cent of the species
described from North America. The Board
of Trustees, in recognition of her generosity
and scientific accomplishments, elected
Dr. Marshall a Contributor to the Museum.

Dr. A. T. Kenyon, James E. Lowden, S. J.
Landau, Bernard W. Levin, Bernard M.
Levine, Edmund W. Lowe, Dr. David
Bremner Maher, John A. McGreevy,
Charles L. Mugg, Dr. Peter S. Y. Neskow,
Adolf Nilsson, Richard Orlikoff, Nathan G.
Osborne, P. E. Petty, R. L. Redcliffe,
George Rich III, Paul F. Rohloff, Dr.
Herbert D. Trace, T. J. Tracy, C. A. Wood,
Miss Margaret J. Wright

PRINTED BY CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PRESS

Page 2

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

September, 1955

Chicago Natural History Museum

Founded by Makshaix Field, 1893

Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago 5

Telephone: WAbash 2-9410

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lester Armour Henry P. Isham

Sewell L. Avery Hughston M. McBain

Wi€. Mccormick Blair Willlam H. Mitchell

Walther Buchen John T. Pirie, Jr.

Walter J. Cummings Clarence B. Randall

Joseph N. Field George A. Richardson

Marshall Field John G. Searle

Marshall Field, Jr. Solomon A. Smith

Stanley Field Louis Ware

Samuel Insull, Jr. John P. Wilson

OFFICERS

Stanley Field President

Marshall Field Firet Viee-Preeident

Hughston M. McBain Second VUe-Pretident

Joseph N. Field Third Vice-President

Solomon A. Smith Treasurer

Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary

John R. Millar Assistant Secretary

THE BULLETIN

EDITOR
Clifford C. Gregg Director of the Museum

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology

Theodor Just Chief Curator of Botany

Sharat K. Roy Chief Curator of Geology

Austin L. Rand Chief Curator of Zoology

MANAGING EDITOR
H. B. Harte Public Relations Counsel

ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Helen A. MacMinn Jane Rockwell

Members are requested to inform the Museum
promptly of changes of address.

For Members' Night {Oct. 7) . . .

WE OFFER NO LESS
THAN THIS EARTH

DESPITE the ever-present possibilities
of sudden incalculable events raised by
the combination of international conflicts
and the potentialities of atomic fission, it is
quite confidently expected that the earth
will still be here on October 7 (a Friday).
That date has been selected for this year's
MEMBERS' NIGHT at the Museum, the
theme of which will be, of all things — the
EARTH! That is, the main feature of the
evening's program, which will run from
7 to 10:30 P.M., will be a preview opening
of the Museum's newest hall — the Hall of
the Earth (Hall 34— Physical Geology
second floor, northwest side).

Confronted daily with the confusing
welter of world politics, local community
problems, the demands of individual, family
and social life, the high costs of everything,
the preservation of health, and the thousand
and one other considerations that make
living so complicated, probably the average
man or woman scarcely ever gives a thought
to the most fundamental factor in his ex-
istence— the earth itself. Until recent years,
only divine intervention or the action of
nature taking its course over millions or
billions of years were seen as possible causes

of total cosmic catastrophe, and no one
really worried. Today, as man himself
continues to toy with forces that in a second
of recklessness conceivably might usher
everything mundane out of existence, a good
many people are finally scared, or at least
aware that there is no guarantee of security
even for the planet they inhabit. At this
juncture, therefore, the earth and the forces
within and without it are something truly
and immediately worthy of man's respect
and study, and in opening its new hall the
Museum is presenting a subject as timely
and interesting as anything man could
consider.

THE LATEST CONCEPTS

In the new Hall of the Earth, all the
exhibits on this vast subject have been
devised to present the most up-to-date,
authoritative information and widely ac-
cepted theories and concepts of modern
science on the subject. To enhance the
attractiveness and interest of the hall, the
most modem museum techniques in exhibit
preparation have been applied. The ac-
companying labels have been carefully
written to present essential information
in clear and concise form. Museum Mem-
bers are therefore invited to come and see
how the basic facts underlying the com-
position and structure of the earth itself,
and the forces that act upon it from within
and without have been organized and visual-
ized for public instruction.

The new hall contains thirty-seven ex-
hibits, of which four are elaborate dioramas
illustrating some of the principal and most
spectacular earth phenomena. These are:

1. The effects of stream erosion. This
is illustrated by a model of part of the
Grand Canyon of Arizona, with the Colorado
River as erosional agent.

2. The solvent action of ground waters.
This is demonstrated by a model showing
the interior of a typical cave.

3. The effects of glaciation. What
a glacier is and what it does to the to-
pography is shown by a model.

4. Volcanism. The processes by which
volcanoes come into existence, volcanic
power and activity are illustrated in the
fourth of the dioramas.

The dioramas are the work of George
Marchand, noted sculptor of West Seneca,
New York, who in 1951 prepared the
dioramas of prehistoric invertebrate life in
Frederick J. V. Skiff Hall (Hall 37). The
present models reveal the same creative
artistry and masterful craftsmanship ap-
plied to exhibits in the field of physical
geology.

FILMS OF VOLCANOES

The new hall was prepared under the
general supervision of Dr. Sharat K. Roy,
Chief Curator of Geology. As another
feature of Members' Night, Dr. Roy, who
recently returned from an expedition to

■THIS MONTH'S COVBR-

Held sacred to Bastet, the Cat
Goddess, our domestic Tabby
filled a very important role in the
Land of the Nile around 600 B. C.
The example of feline majesty on
our cover that appears to be
emerging mystically from an
Egyptian tombstone, is an ancient
sculpture in bronze that can be
seen in the Museum's Hall of
Egypt (Hall J). Some items from
the history and mythology of cats,
as overheard in a conversation
between a mother and her kitten,
are related on page 3.

study volcanoes in several Central American
countries, will talk on his studies in the
James Simpson Theatre at 9 p.m. Dr. Roy
will show color motion pictures that he
made on his most recent (1955) as well as
previous expeditions.

Members of the staff of the Department
of Geology who participated in the pre-
paration of the new hall include Harry E.
Changnon, Curator of Exhibits; Preparators
Henry Horback and Henry U. Taylor, and
Miss Maidi Wiebe, departmental artist.

OPEN HOUSE IN LABS

While the geology theme will be the
dominating one for Members' Night, all of
the Museum's other scientific departments
— Anthropology, Botany, and Zoology — will
hold open house for the guests, who are
invited to visit third and fourth floor areas
of the building usually closed to the public.
Here they will find, in their offices, labor-
atories, shops and studios, the curators,
dioramists, taxidermists, artists, preparators
and other technicians whose efforts keep
the Museum alive. All members of the
staff will be available to answer questions
on the part of the visitors and to demon-
strate various phases of their work.

Museum Members and their guests may
wander independently or they may join
small conducted tour-groups that will be as-
sembled frequently under the guidance of
the six young women of the staff of James
Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond Founda-
tion for Public School and Children's
Lectures.

DIORAMAS OF ANCIENT INDIANS

Rivaling the new geology hall, the De-
partment of Anthropology presents in Hall
7 (Ancient and Modern Indians of the
Southwestern United States) on the first
floor, three new and spectacular dioramas.
One is a restoration of a Mogollon village
of about A.D. 300, based upon findings of the
series of Archaeological Expeditions to the
(Continued on page 7, column 3)

September, 1935

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page S

A CAT STILL MOURNS FOR THE GLORY THAT WAS EGYPT

By jane ROCKWELL

ii

OF COURSE, to man we've always
been a source of fascination and
even, at times, of reverence," the broad-
banded tabby cat said as she stretched
luxuriously and strode to the window, leav-
ing her two-month old replica staring,
puzzled, after her.

"I usually wait until my kittens are at
least three months old before telling them
of their proud history, but your questions
about your ancestry seem to indicate, as
I suspected, that you are the most preco-
cious of all fifteen before you."

The kitten, whose name was Daniel, cast
his eyes down but was unable to conceal the
pride that made his whiskers quiver just
perceptibly.

"Come over here and sit by the window
and I'll tell you of your glorious history and
why it is so splendid to be a cat — especially
a tabby." With a great effort, chubby
little Daniel managed to lift himself onto
the window sill. Seeing his mother had
already assumed her most pedagogical
mien, he settled down quietly, his ears
standing upright to avoid missing any-
thing.

'we were the first . . .'

"Our exact origin is unknown, but don't
let that disturb you," said his mother.
"There is good reason to believe that we
cats were domesticated even before man
began to make a record of history. The first
recorded reference to us is found in Egypt
where felines were venerated as sacred to
the cat goddess, Bastet, or Lady of Love. In-
cidentally, all these sacred cats were tabbies,
which means, of course, that we were the
first known cats. This bit of information
might come in handy, Daniel, when one
of those white angoras in the next block
begins showing her tiresome conceit.

"Where was I? Oh yes, Egypt. Cat
worship, according to some historians, can
be traced to a prehistoric Cat Clan dating
as far back as 4000 to 10,000 B.C. that
inhabited the city of Bubastis, or Pasht,
the most important center of cat worship
in all Egypt. Bastet, the cat-goddess, may
have come from the totem of the clan that

represented the sun and moon as the goddess
did later. Fashioned most frequently in
bronze, Bastet was shown in human form,
but with the head of a cat. At times she
was represented with short garments,
revealing human limbs and a cat's feet and
tail. And sometimes she was depicted in
long garments, most often carrying a
sistrum, which was a musical rattle used in
worship, and a shield or basket. Figurines
of cats, highly adorned with jewelry and
other finery, have been discovered in Egypt's
tombs as well as paintings of cats hunting
with their masters. So you see, Daniel,
although we were idolized, we weren't idle
by any means — we put ourselves to good,
practical u.ses."

Purring and stroking her whiskers, Dan-
iel's mother made no attempt to suppress
her satisfaction at the pun she had made —
even though she had made it to each of
Daniel's fifteen brothers and sisters before
him.

"The penalty was heavy for Egyptians
caught killing cats (man in the 20th century
could take a few hints from the Egyptians,
Daniel), and at the death of a cat, human
members of its household cut off their eye-
brows to show their grief. Cats were mum-
mified, and gold, gems, and mummified
mice, the latter intended for food in the
afterlife, were buried along with them."

"How considerate those Egyptians were,"
remarked Daniel softly.

"It was more than that, son. We were
held in reverence by the entire population.
Although the Egyptians worshipped many
animals, none were worshipped by their
millions as consistently and for as long a
period as we were."

'CAT funerals were SECOND GRADE . . .'

"But back to my story. While first-grade
human funerals cost about $1,500, cat
funerals were second grade and set the
bereaved household back about $500. Our
ancestors, from rich and poor homes alike,
were buried in cemeteries all over Egypt.
Cats from temple palaces were buried in
bronze caskets with bronze statues of them-
selves on top, or they were placed in bronze
boxes shaped like themselves. I've never
been there — I think they have a rule about
live cats — but I've heard the human mem-
bers of our household talking about these
same statues and others that they've seen
at Chicago Natural History Museum in its
Hall of Egypt. But man hasn't always
been good to our ancestors and their mem-
ories. In 1895 the remains of 180,000 cats
were unearthed from Egyptian tombs and
sold for fertilizer at $18.43 a ton, and, what's
more, the auctioneer used the body of an
embalmed cat as a gavel!"

Daniel shuddered at this disturbing pic-
ture, and his mother paused, peering
intently at him to make sure he had grasped

the significance of her words, before she
went on.

"In China, during the Hsia, Shang, and
Chou dynasties, which were from 2205 to
225 B.C., sacrificial rites and theatrical
ceremonies were held in honor of the cat,
and heavy fines were imposed for destroying
us, as in Egypt. All through history, we've
played a significant role in relation to man.
Cat clans in the Teutonic and Celtic
countries proudly used the cat as an emblem
for their banners. Roman soldiers in 100
B.C. displayed cat figures on shields and flags,
as did the Hessians, Cattani of north Britain,
and the ancient Burgundians. The last
known cat clan is still in operation in the
Highlands of Scotland, and since its origin
in the middle of the 12th century, it has
maintained its motto: 'Touch not the cat
bot [without) a glove.' "

"A good piece of advice," said Daniel,
who had not yet mastered the art of retract-
ing his claws — much to the dismay of
human beings.

'goddess of love'

"Cat worship was prevalent, too, in
Norse mythology," continued Daniel's
mother. "Freyja, the Norse cat goddess
of love, is shown on
special occasions being
drawn in her chariot
by two cats, sym-
bolizing enjoyment of
the senses. Norse
maidens were mar-
ried on Freyja's day
(Friday) if possible,
and if the sun shone
during the ceremony
it was said that the
maidens had taken
good care of the cat
and fed her well.

"Cats spread to
other parts of the
world when soldiers
and sailors adopted
them as mascots to
serve as rat-killers
aboard ship. We left
our mark on the sea-
going world too, as
you can see in nauti-
cal terminology such
as 'cat walk,' meaning
narrow passage-way;
'cat head,' where the
anchor is hoisted;
'catted,' while at sea;
and 'cat-o'-nine-tails,'
a whip with which
sailors were flogged
before the mast."

Daniel, who had the youngster's usual
enthusiasm for sea-life, began to daydream
after his mother's words, but a stern switch

BASTET,

the Cat Goddess.

Ancient bronze

sculpture in
Hall of Egypt.

Page k

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

September, 1955

of her tail bought him tumbling down from
the ship's mast onto his windowsill perch.
"We've had our crosses to bear, of course
— times when man, unable to understand us,
has invested us with supernatural qualities
or connected us with some of his outlandish
superstitions. During the witchcraft days
in Europe and America, cats were considered
a companion to the witch, and witches' cats
were said to have spoken the same language
as their mistresses. A common belief at that
time was that if an old woman was injured
shortly after a cat was injured, the woman
was a witch.

"Superstitions about witch cats still
persist among the European peasantry,
and the old belief that a black cat entering
a home endangered the lives of its occupants
has been modified to the cat's crossing
a human being's
path as a symbol
either of good luck
or bad luck, depen-
ding on the section
of the world. In
this country, un-
fortunately it's
bad luck, and I've
seen human guests
shudder and recoil
upon seeing my late
husband enter the
living room.
"As to supernatural qualities attributed
to the cat, there are some redeeming factors.
In ancient Egypt and Japan, spiritualists
believed that cats protected them from
inimical supernatural forces. Orientals,
mainly, credited the cat with occult vision
and an ability to see into the past, forecast
the future, and p>erceive objects and beings
invisible to man. Even today, our habit
of looking steadily into a person's eyes
or sitting with half-closed eyes has gained
us the reputation of being 'knowing' and
meditative. A logical supposition, of
course," Daniel's mother added. Daniel
nodded.

"During the 17th century we were con-
sidered excellent weather predictors. A cat
whose foot extended beyond the crown of
its head when it was washing itself, a 'bawl-
ing' cat, and one with its 'brains to the
ground' were harbingers of rain. A cat
washing its face toward the wind or an old
cat frisking about was taken as an omen of
a brewing storm, and a cat sitting with its
back to the fire denoted that a frost was
coming. At second glance, this folklore
isn't as nonsensical as it seems, Daniel.
It has been reported that our supersensitive
hearing power has enabled us to pick up
the ground vibrations that precede an
earthquake.

"The superstitions about us that man has
created in the past are causes of many false
impressions about us today." The mother
tabby leaned eagerly toward Daniel be-
cause to her this was a most serious subject.

"Although many human beings believe we
can see in the dark, we can't, but you may
have discovered, Daniel, our eyes are so
constructed that a maximum amount of
vision is possible with a minimum amount
of light. Our eye-surface is exceptionally
large in proportion to our bodies and our
pupils are highly sensitive. Our pupils
shrink to slits in strong light and expand
in poor light until they cover almost the
entire surface of our eyes."

Seeing that Daniel was preoccupied in
rapidly opening and closing his eyes, his
mother cleared her throat ominously and
continued: "Contrary to popular opinion,
cats are among the most intelligent of
mammals. Their brains roughly resemble
the human brain. And it comes as no
surprise, I'm sure, for you to hear that cats
have surpassed dogs, raccoons, and rats in
intelligence tests, although in all fairness
I must say that individual differences exist
here as they do in all mammals.

"Although the old ridiculous saying that
a cat has nine lives is now treated lightly,
many human beings think that a cat can
fall many stories without being killed or
even injured. Our feline grace and sinewy
muscles can save us from harm in a short
tumble, but many of us die every year in
falls from high places.

"Another common fallacy is the belief
that cats and dogs are necessarily incom-
patible. Personally I would never choose
a dog for a close friend, but many cats and
dogs get along very amicably after they have
become accustomed to one another's idio-
syncrasies. I've knowTi several dogs quite
well, but I've found it the best policy not
to exhibit our superiority, unless absolutely
necessary, and to tolerate as best we can
their bad manners.

'they seldom transmit dise^ases'

"Cats don't carry diseases to any greater
extent than does Man, and they seldom
transmit diseases to human beings as do
dogs and rats. The saliva of a healthy cat
is free from bacteria, and if one of us is
bitten by another eat the wound is usually
clean, while a wound given us by a dog is
likely to abscess if not tended properly.
Incidentally, when we draw our claws along
tne bark of a tree or, to human beings'
displeasure, along a rug or sofa, we aren't
sharpening our claws as many people think.
Our claws are shed, as you'll discover,
Daniel, throughout the year, and we merely
work off loose bits of dead skin from our
front claws by scratching them on wood or
something similar. We care for our hind
claws by removing the bits with our teeth.

"Many human beings think that we're
stoic and incapable of showing any degree
or variety of emotion. While the great
mobility of our eyes and mouths conveys
most of our emotions, our ears, too, serve
as a valuable barometer of our state of
mind. As you may know, Daniel, forward

reflects joy; backward, disapproval."

Daniel began to wiggle his ears violently,
hoping this action would cause sudden
changes of mood but, unfortunately, it
didn't.

"Cats have the most delicate sense of
touch in the animal kingdom," his mother
continued. "While our sense of taste is not
as acute as that of the monkey, it is highly
developed, and our hearing powers are so
extraordinary as to reach far beyond the
human range — even to half-tones to which
other animals are deaf. The human ear can
detect tones as high as 20,000 cycles per
second while our hearing reaches cycles as
high as 60,000 per second. We have very
powerful sight, too, and an ability to
distinguish, to some extent, form and color.
Though our sense of smell is less acute than
that of dogs it tends toward more delicate
odors such as perfume, while the dog, as you
might expect, prefers carrion smells.

'FELIX CATUS IS CORRECT'

"Although Felis domestica is more com-
monly used, Felis catus is the correct zoo-
logical term for us. All cats belong to this
genus and species. There are no subspecies
(varieties) because of our unknown origin.
So-called 'domestic' cats are divided into
short-haired and long-haired breeds. Short-
hairs in the United States include tabbies
(that's us) and solid-color and tortoise-shell
cats and their derivatives, spotted, smoke,
and bobtail. Foreign short-hairs include
the Abyssinian ticked, Burmese, Manx,
and Siamese. Among the long-hairs are the
Persian, Angora, Russian, Burmese, tabby,
tortoise-shell, chinchilla or silver, smoke,
and peke-faced.

"I'm sorry to say that there is a certain
type of human being, existing even today,
Daniel, that is called an aelurophobe, which
means a person with a morbid fear of cats.
And there are (and I know this to be true
from personal experience) some souls who
simply do not like us — possibly because
they believe some of the fallacies that have
come dowTi through the ages and haven't
taken the trouble to know us. Of course,
we're entitled to our personal prejudices
too. We can only hope that these un-
enlightened human beings appreciate the
fact that if it weren't for us, mice and rats
would be rampant upon the earth. For the
many other two- and four-footed mammals
that are our admirers, there's a saying by
Montaigne I've never forgotten because it
reveals such a sharp insight into our
personalities: 'When I play with my cat
who knows whether I do not make her
more sport than she makes me?'"

And so saying, Daniel's mother, after
a dramatic pause, looked down expectantly
at her son, who, she discovered, was sound
asleep.

"Well, maybe I should have waited
another month, she thought as she began
to give Daniel his afternoon bath.

September, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 5

PREHISTORIC JEWELRY
SHOP UNEARTHED

By WENDY C. OLSON

MEMBER, SOUTHWEST ARCHAEOLOCICAL EXPEDITION

IN the 13th century a.d., Moorish artists
left their lasting tribute to art in the
magnificent halls of the Alhambra. During
the same period, on a hilltop overlooking
the lush valley of the Blue River in Arizona,
the native inhabitants there, too, found
a means of artistic expression.

When they first came to the valley 5,000
years ago, the basic living needs of the people

ANCIENT JEWELER'S TECHNIQUE
Photograph shows method used by prehistoric
Indian artist in scoring bone to make finger rings.
The saws made of chalcedony for scoring the bone

are also shown (at lower left, and in use).

were too pressing to allow time for many
aesthetic developments. Hunting and gath-
ering, and making the tools necessary for
life, occupied their full time. But, little
by little, progress was made. They moved
from their temporary dwellings into pit-
houses. During this time they discovered
that by planting and tending seeds they
would have a surer supply of food. If the
crop were carefully stored, it would provide
valuable nourishment for the lean winter
months.

In about a.d. 1000 another great change
took place; the people began to build
"apartment houses" large enough to ac-
commodate the entire community. The
massive walls were constructed of large
boulders bonded with mud mortar. Firepits
were carefully constructed of fitted slabs.
When the grain and game had been gathered
and stored in the sturdy homes, there was
spare time for the people to devote to
arts and crafts. We have found the tools
of one such artisan.

Perhaps his hearth was not as pain-
stakingly made as those of his neighbors,
and the walls of his home were in rather
bad repair, but he was a craftsman! His
equipment was entirely a matter of "do-it-
yourself" with the raw materials nature had
provided. A sharp, efficient awl could be
fashioned from a bone split lengthwise with
a chipped flint saw. A sandstone slab, with
a groove worn on one surface, provided an
excellent sharpener. A combination of

hearth ashes, water, and hard rubbing
resulted in an eye-pleasing polish. A saw
was required to manufacture a shell bracelet.
The aboriginal jeweler solved the problem
by chipping several "teeth" on a piece of
flint. To make a bone ring, a deer's leg bone
was sawed cross-wise into many rough
"blanks." Each blank was smoothed with
sandstone, so well and so highly polished
that anyone would have been proud to wear
the finished product.

There are no written records of this man.
The few mute stones and bones recovered
by Chicago Natural History Museum's
expedition are enough to tell the story.

The Museum's annual Southwest Archae-
ological Expedition, at work near Reserve,
New Mexico, is under the direction of
Dr. Paul S. Martin, Chief Curator of the
Department of Anthropology. He is assisted
by Dr. John B. Rinaldo, Assistant Curator
of Archaeology. Other members of the
expedition are Mrs. Martha Perry, Chicago;

DISCOVERY
Mrs. Alan P. (Wendy) Olson, member of the
Southwest Archaeological Expedition and writer of
the accompanying account of its work, clears a
slab-lined firepit in the ancient Arizona Indian ruins.
An ax and other artifacts have been uncovered.

Roland Strassburger, Northbrook, Illinois;
David Collier, Chicago; Robert Lamb, an
Antioch College student; and Mr. and Mrs.
Alan P. Olson, students at the University
of Arizona.

Daily Guide Lectures

Free guide-lecture tours are offered daily
except Sundays under the title "Highlights
of the Exhibits." These tours are designed
to give a general idea of the entire Museum
and its scope of activities. They begin at
2 P.M. on Monday through Friday and at
2:30 P.M. on Saturday.

Special tours on subjects within the range
of the Museum exhibits are available Mon-
days through Fridays for parties of ten or
more persons. Requests for such service
must be made at least one week in advance.

Although there are no tours on Sundays,
the Museum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

NATURE PHOTO CONTEST
GETS UNDER WAY

Now is the time to begin selecting your
best summer vacation photographs of
scenery, animals, plants, and other natural
phenomena for entry in the Chicago Inter-
national Exhibition of Nature Photography.

The exhibit, eleventh in the annual series
under the sponsorship of the Nature Camera
Club of Chicago, will be held in Stanley
Field Hall of the Museum from February 1
to 28 next year. Color slides will be pro-
jected on the screen of the James Simpson
Theatre on two Sunday afternoons during
that period.

Final deadline for entries will be January
16. Early entries are encouraged both for
the benefit of contestants and to facilitate
the work of classifying and filing that must
be done by the contest committee. The
competition is open to both amateur and
professional photographers. It is the world's
largest contest devoted exclusively to nature
photos, and one of the largest photographic
contests of any class.

There are two divisions of entries — prints,
and color slides. In the print divisioii,
photographs may be either black-and-white
or in color. In both divisions, to meet
eligibility requirements, entries must fall
within one of three sub-classifications:
(1) Animal Life, (2) Plant Life, or (3)
General. The General section includes
scenery, geological formations, clouds, and
other natural phenomena that do not fit
into the animal and plant life sections.

Medals and ribbons will be awarded in
each classification of each division, and
in addition, there will be special prizes
awarded by the Photographic Society of
America. Each contestant is entitled to
submit up to four entries in each division
of the contest.

Detailed information will be found in the
entry forms which may be obtained by
request to the Museum. Photographs
should be sent directly to the Museum.

Seasonal Change in Visiting Hours

Autumn visiting hours, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
will go into effect at the Museum on Sep-
tember 6, the day after Labor Day. The
new schedule will continue until October
14, after which the hours will be 9 a.m. to
4 P.M. (5 P.M. on Sundays).

Four Museum halls devoted to various
phases of economic botany emphasize how
much the human race is dependent upon
plants, not only for food but also for shelter,
clothing, and many of the comforts of life.

The giant clam of the Pacific and Indian
oceans, largest known bivalve, is represented
in Hall M by an example about two feet
ten inches long.

Page 6

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

September, 1955

SHOTS IN THE NIGHT-FROM A CAMERA BLIND

One of the highlights of the recent South-
western Zoological Field Trip was an op-
portunity to photograph mule deer from a
special blind at the Arizona-Sonora Desert
Museum near Tucson. The blind, designed
and built by Lewis W. Walker of the Desert
Museum staff, is one of the features of that
institution: The following article describes
a night in the blind.

By D. DWIGHT DAVIS

CURATOR OF VERTEBRATE ANATOMY

IT WAS CRAMPED inside the blind now
that it was darli, and the three of us sat
there in the blackness, peering through the
slots like gunners in a bomber. I scarcely
dared move for fear of joggling the cameras
I had carefully set up while there was still
light. At my elbow Elliot Porter, the well-
known bird photographer, was a shadow
in the faint light coming through the slot

RIG FOR rNlGHi PHOTOGRAPHY OF ANIMALS
Permanent blind for battery of cameras at Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

in front of his camera, and Lew Walker,
on the other side of Porter, was only
a disembodied voice behind the dim rec-
tangle of the third slot.

Through the opening in front of my own
cameras I could see that the sky was still
faintly luminous, making the light from
the seven-watt bulb suspended over the tiny
pool of water out front look yellow and
artificial. The pool ftself was a few inches
deep and scarcely three feet across, and we
could spit into it from where we sat. The
blind towered over it, a mass of lumber
studded with a dozen metal reflectors for
the flashbulbs and with four camera slots
across the front like the vertical slits in
a cat's eyes.

Even in the desert it seemed preposterous
to expect deer and javelina to ignore so
obvious an ambush, and I might have
thought Lew was crazy if I had not seen
magnificent pictures he had made from this
same blind. We had scarcely settled down
before footsteps sounded on the hard ground

outside, and I wondered who was barging
in to spoil whatever chances we had of
getting a picture.

"Here comes a deer," Lew whispered,
and I was astonished that a deer made
so much noise and glad I had not made
some stupid remark about the intruder.
"It's a doe. She's coming in behind the
saguaro."

Then the deer stepped into the light and
I saw her, huge ears tensed forward and eyes
fixed on the blind. She looked nervous
and suspicious and I could scarcely believe
she would come on in, but she ducked her
head and inched forward and in a moment
was standing at the edge of the pool, head
up and staring me straight in the eye.
A piece of cholla dangled from her chin.
There was exactly ten feet between us, but
I felt I could reach through the window
and touch her, and in the faint glow of the
tiny bulb she looked
as big as a mastodon.
"Wait until she
starts to drink," Lew
whispered slowly,
"then open your shut-
ters. I'll fire the flash-
bulbs when she raises
her head." One of the
big ears twitched and
she turned her head
slightly. I expected
her to bolt, but a mo-
ment later she lowered
her head and began to
drink.

"Ready?" Lew
whispered.

"I'm open," Porter
breathed.

I pressed the release
to open the shutter
of the Exacta and in the dead silence it
clanged like a sledge striking an anvil.
The deer bolted and was gone in a sickening
clatter of stones long before Lew had
a chance to fire the flashbulbs. I felt like
crawling out of the blind and going home.

"It sounds like a boiler factory in here,"
Lew said aloud, and his voice startled me
after the tense silence. I joined in the
laughter without feeling any mirth.

"She'll be back," he went on. "You'd
better open that shutter earlier. You can
stay open for about fifteen minutes without
rocks showing through the deer's stomach."
I was determined not to foul up the next
one even if it meant not using the Exacta.
Then I found a letter in my shirt pocket
that I could use to screen the lens, and the
nervous sweat began to dry on my forehead.

THE DOE RETURNS

In a few minutes the doe was back, the
piece of cholla still hanging from her chin.
Lew said "Okay, let's watch that shutter."

She drank a little, then raised her head and
stared off to the left, tense and alert. There
was a blinding flash as the four flashbulbs
in the first bank went off, and Porter and
I exhaled together. Unless I had boggled
in the darkness I had something on the
films.

"She wasn't through drinking," Lew said.
"I think she'll come back. We've got two
more shots before we have to reload the
reflectors."

We shot the same doe twice more before
she left for good, the piece of cholla still
there. On the first few shots I was sure
I was bungling something in the darkness,
but by the time we went out to replace the
flashbulbs I was confident I couldn't be
missing with both cameras and the sweaty
uncertainty was pretty well gone. Back
in the blind we talked until the gravel
rattled again and made us stop the con-
versation abruptly. A moment later
a venerable old doe walked into the light
on legs a little stiff with age.

"Oh, that's old Susie," Lew^said aloud,
startling me but not the deer. "She comes
in every night. We don't want her — come
on, get going, Susie!" The old lady looked
at the blind a moment, then quietly turned
and walked away without drinking.

A SKUNK INTRUDES

There was a long silence, punctuated by
the cries of elf owls, before rattling gravel
brought us to attention again. We were
looking for another deer, but instead
a hooded skunk came in from one side and
made straight for the can of horse meat
buried beside the pool to encourage carni-
vores. The poor devil was having trouble
managing his hind quarters and was
obviously badly crippled. "Probably hit
by a car," Lew said. "He's no good for
a picture."

We watched the skunk go to work on the
bait can with frenzied determination.
Porter and I felt sorry for him and cheered
him on, but he ignored us. Lew cursed him
because he had baited the can for ring-tailed
cat. Then footsteps sounded in the darkness
beyond the light and somebody said "Sh!"
A moment later we could see the legs of
a deer coming in, very hesitantly because
of the skunk.

"There's two of them," Lew whispered.
"I can just see the second one."

They edged in closer, holding back
because of the skunk, still out of range of the
cameras and partly hidden behind a bush.
I got a momentary clear view of the lead
animal's head, enough to glimpse a pair
of antlers.

"The first one's a buck," I whispered.
"About four points." Porter was twisted
to one side, peering past his camera into
the background.

"There's a third deer back behind the
saguaro," he announced. Things were
looking up. A chance of shooting a buck

September, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 7

and a pair of does in one group was far
better luck than we had dared hope for.

"Damn that skunk," Lew said. "They're
afraid of him. They may not come in."

The deer milled around slowly behind the
pool, eyes on the skunk. Then the buck
began to move up, one of the does at his
flank, and we waited tensely.

"This may be good," Lew whispered.
"I'll shoot the lights if anything develops."

PLANS GO AWRY

Suddenly the skunk backed away from the
bait can with a huge piece of meat in his
jaws and moved off into the shadows as
triumphantly as his crippled legs allowed.
The deer were still nervous. We passed
a couple of fair shots waiting for the trio
to group into something good. Then one
of the does moved off and we knew we had
muffed it. The flashbulbs fired just as the
buck turned to leave.

"That was a poor shot," Lew said.
"I was afraid we would end up with nothing
if we waited too long. I've done that more
than once."

"Do you think they will come back?"
Porter said.

"I doubt it. It's nearly midnight and
there won't be much activity now until just
before daybreak." He began to maneuver
his lanky frame from behind his camera.
"I'm going to have a cup of hot cocoa and
turn in."

Porter and I waited another hour, during
which nothing happened. We had sat in

SURPRISE !

One of the Sonoran mule deer that visited the water

hole in front of the Desert Museum bhnd. Hanging

from the animal's chin is a piece of cholla.

the blind five hours and had shot six deer
pictures with each of the three cameras,
eighteen exposures in all. I was so stiff
I could hardly move.

"The show seems to be over," I said.
"I would sit here for the rest of the night
if there was a chance of shooting a javelina."

"So would I," said Porter. "But you
know, I'll bet Walker left some of that
cocoa warming on the stove."

We climbed out of the blind and went up
to the house in the darkness. Sure enough
he had.

FALL LECTURES AND FILMS
TO BEGIN OCTOBER 1

The autumn course of free illustrated
lectures for adults on Saturday afternoons
— the 104th lecture series to be oft'ered by the
Museum — will begin on October 1. There
will be lectures, at 2:30 p.m., on each
Saturday throughout October and No-
vember.

The opening lecture (October 1) will be
"Between the Tides," by Robert C. Hermes
of the National Audubon Society. Mr.
Hermes' color motion pictures and his
narrative tell the story of the "in-between
world inhabited by in-between creatures,
those that never seem quite able to decide
which is lovelier, the land or the sea, or
where they'd rather be." His scenes range
from the coral shores of the Bahamas to
Nova Scotia's fishing villages, and from
San Francisco's foggy harbor to Hawaii's
sun-drenched beaches. He pictures the
drama in the weird life-cycles of strange
creatures that live as "beachcombers"
between the tides. Flying sea-birds and
wading shore birds, ghost and fiddler crabs,
and mysterious dwellers from beneath the
seas trapped in tidepools all appear in this
fascinating film.

Second lecture of the season, on October
8, will be "The Land the Glaciers Forgot,"
by Howard L. Orians. In color films and
lecture Mr. Orians strips away the technical
approach with which his subject is usually
treated. He presents the story of a curious
geological phenomenon — the occurrence in
the Middle West of a huge area that was
completely by-passed by the great glaciers
of the Ice Age. This has resulted in a terrain
that contrasts with other parts of the region.

A schedule of the other seven lectures
in the series will appear in the October issue
of the Bulletin. For all the progams,
a section of the Theatre is reserved for
Members of the Museum, each of whom
is entitled to two reserved seats. Requests
for reserved seats should be made in advance
by telephone (WAbash 2-9410) or in writing.
Seats will be held in the Member's name
until! 2:25 o'clock on the day of the program.

MEMBERS' NIGHT OCT. 7

{Continued from page 2)

Southwest led for many years past by Dr.
Paul S. Martin, Chief Curator of Anthro-
pology. The second diorama represents
a village of the Hohokam Indians at about
A.D. 800 to 900 in the desert between Tucson
and Phoenix, Arizona. The third is a min-
iature reconstruction of Pueblo Bonito in
New Mexico, about A.D. 1100, showing
tribesmen performing ceremonial dances
to propitiate the rain gods. The three
dioramas were prepared by Alfred Lee
Rowell, of the Department of Anthropology
staff.

cafeteria; special buses

Although the Members' Night program
does not begin until 7 p.m., the doors of the
Museum building will be open from 6 o'clock
on. For those who wish to dine at the
Museum, the Cafeteria on the ground floor
will offer its services at regular prices from
6 to 8 P.M.

There is ample free parking-space at the
north of the Museum building. For those
who do not wish to drive their cars, special
free motor-bus service has been arranged.
A special bus marked to indicate Museum
shuttle-service will leave Jackson Boulevard
at State Street at 15-minute intervals be-
ginning at 6:30 p.m. The last bus will
leave the Museum at 10:45 p.m. In both
directions the bus will make an intermediate
stop at 7th Street and Michigan Avenue.
This transportation is free — no fares col-
lected, no transfers required.

One of the rarest and most curious plants
in the world, the giant welwitschia from the
Mossamedes Desert of Africa, is displayed
in a habitat group in Martin A. and Carrie
Ryerson Hall (Hall 29).

WILD FLOWER PICTURES
IN SEPTEMBER SHOW

The mystery and enchantment of the
woods, their wild flowers and animals, will
be found in Stanley Field Hall throughout
the month of September when a collection
of 50 color photographs goes on special
exhibit.

The work of Jeannette Klute, research
photographer for the Eastman Kodak
Company, the photographs are the originals
of the pictures that compose Miss Klute's
recent book. Woodland Portraits, which is
also the title of the exhibit. A talented
photographer and a lover of nature. Miss
Klute has exhibited in leading museums and
galleries throughout the United States and
Europe. The plants shown in the exhibit
were photographed in their natural habitats
and in natural lighting to suggest the moods
one might feel while walking through the
woods.

The fifty color photographs consist of
woodland plants and animals seen in early
spring and continuing through summer and
autumn. Prints shown are approximately
11 by 14 inches. Miss Klute's book. Wood-
land Portraits, also will be on sale in the
Museum Book Shop.

Page 8

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

September, 1955

MOVIES FOR CHILDREN
ON NINE SATURDAYS

Free programs of motion pictures for
children will be presented in the James
Simpson Theatre of the Museum every
Saturday morning during October and
November under the auspices of the James
Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond Foun-
dation. The shows begin at 10:30 a.m.

First program, on October 1, will be
"Neptune's Children," the story of the seas,
the tides, and the strange animal life found
on beaches and in tidepools. Robert C.
Hermes of the National Audubon Society,
who made the pictures, will tell the story
to the audience of youngsters.

On October 8 a film of Southwest Indian
life, "Pueblo Boy," will be shown. No
tickets are needed for the movies. Children
are welcome either alone, accompanied by
parents or other adults, or in groups from
schools, clubs and other centers. A schedule
of the other seven programs will appear
in the October Bulletin.

BIRD FILM STRIPS
AID TEACHING

BIRDS. How They Live and Help Us.

Five film strips with photography and
text by Mrs. Allan D. Cruickshank, is-
sued by the Society for Visual Education,
Inc., Chicago. Complete set of five strips,
$23.75; singly, $5.

These five film strips are rolled lengths of
35mm color film of about thirty color pic-
tures and captions of birds each, with from
six to twelve frames of text. The advan-
tages of these strips over individual slides is
that the pictures don't get out of order and
the demonstrator needs no knowledge of the
subject or preparation — only the ability to
read the captions under the pictures and the
text as they are flashed on the screen. For
a classroom lecture, film strips are a package
deal, and probably 90 per cent of teachers
would prefer them to slides. That they
need a special projector and that they are
inflexible are disadvantages. If the dem-
onstrator knows his subject and wants to
adapt his lecture to local conditions, he is
stymied.

Film strips are coming into wider and
wider use. Locally, schools, especially the
lower grades, are building up libraries of
film strips. In the foreign-mission field Dr.
Robert L. Fleming, Field Associate of the
Museum, tells me that in India film strips
are now being used as visual aids in teaching.

The present five film strips are as follows:

(1) Birds of the ocean, its beaches, and
salt marshes (ranging from pelicans and
flamingoes, to plovers, terns and auks)

(2) Birds that live near people (ranging
from barn owls, to swallows, robins, blue
jays, starlings, etc.)

(3) Birds of ponds and marshes (grebes,
ducks, rails, yellowthroats, herons, etc.)

(4) Birds of the forest and its borders
(turkeys, warblers, woodpeckers, chickadees,
Vermillion flycatchers, etc.)

(5) The migration of birds (loons, cranes,
sparrows, swans, swallows, terns, etc.)

The first frame or two of text introduces
the pictures. Each picture has a two-line
caption. A few frames of text are scat-
tered through the film strip, and the strip
concludes with two frames of text that in-
clude questions students can answer either
from the film or from outside reading.

The text presents a problem. To get a
pertinent idea across in a line or two for
bird after bird is as difficult as it is in a
synoptic series of museum exhibits. In
general the text is very well done, and the
pictures are excellent.

Austin L. Rand
Chief Curator of Zoology

Technical Publications

The following technical publications were
issued recently by Chicago Natural History
Museum:

Fieldiana: Zoology, Vol 34, No. 31. A New
Species of Thrush from Angola. By
Austin L. Rand. April 18, 1955. 3 pages.
10c.

Fieldiana: Zoology, Vol. 37. Karl Patterson
Schmidt Anniversary Volume, In Honor
of His Sixty-fifth Birthday. By twenty-
seven contributors. June 19, 1955. 728
pages, 178 illustrations.

Fieldiana: Geology, Vol. 10, No. 20. Fauna
of the Vale arid Choza:10. By Everett
Claire Olsen. March 30, 1955. 51 pages.
85c.

Fieldiana: Botany, Vol. 29, No. 2. Revision
of the Hawaiian Members of the Genus
Tetraplasandra A. Gray. By Earl Edward
Sherff. July 29, 1955. 92 pages.

NEW MEMBERS

(July 18 to August 15)

Associate Members

Dr. John V. Belmonte, Harold A.
Liebenson, Bolton Sullivan

Sustaining Members

Silas S. Cathcart, Joseph E. Guilbault

Annual Members

A. B. Bagley, Charles Bonifield, Ernest
J. Carr, Frederick A. Delaney, Mrs. Harry
Edward Eaton, Earl D. Eisenhower, Dr.
Richard W. Fey, Henry C. Frost, E. Ross
Gamble, Dr. Stanford R. Gamm, Dr. John
H. Garwacki, Herman Harris, Irving L.
Hertzman, John A. Hutchings, Otto Janes,
Richard E. Karklin, James P. Maher,
Charles M. Mason, Robert J. McGreevy,
Mrs. Howard B. Menzner, Roy B. Munroe,
Leonard Nathan, Madison P. Neilson,
Walter Nietschmann, Walter J. Peterson,
Paul B. Shoemaker, David B. Smyth, E.
Courtney Sorrells, Mrs. Walter D. Steele,
Charles H. Vihon, B. Stuart Weyforth, Jr.,
Thomas M. Whitson, V. O. Winkenweder

GIFTS TO THE MUSEUM

DURING PAST MONTH

Following is a list of principal gifts
received during the past month.

Department of Anthropology:

From: Richard A. Pohly, Tulsa, Okla.—
pre-Columbian clay figurine, Venezuela;
Frank Varley, Toronto, Canada — carved
whale of walrus ivory

Department of Botany:

From: Robert Becker, Chicago — a Geran-
ium Robertianum, Wisconsin; Holly R.
Bennett, Chicago — 615 miscellaneous phan-
erogams, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana; Milton
Carleton, Chicago — 2 Arachis, Georgia;
William Bridge Cooke, Cincinnati — 1 alga,
California; Division of Plant Industry,
Australia — 39 samples of agricultural legume
seeds; K. C. Fan, Chicago — a Myriophyllum
tuberculatum, China; Dr. Clark Finnerud,
Chicago — 2 photographs of Orchis rotundi-
folia; Dr. L. J. Gier, Liberty, Mo. — 23
plants; Dr. Walter Kiener, Lincoln, Neb.
—26 algae; Dr. E. P. Killip, Washington,
D. C. — 56 phanerogams, 5 cryptogams,
Cuba; Kendall Laughlin, Chicago — 4 Cra-
taegus (typ)e material); J. R. Lewis, Leeds,
England — 14 algae; University of Notre
Dame, Indiana — 16 cryptogams; Dr. Karl
P. Schmidt, Homewood, 111. — an Illinois
plant; C. Sbarbaro Spotorno, Savona, Italy
— 100 cryptogams

Department of Geology:

From: Chicago Aerial Survey Co., Chi-
cago— photo print of the Ship and Sag
Canal area

Department of Zoology:

From: John Cuneo, Libertyville, 111. —
kangaroo, Australia; Dr. Henry Field,
Coconut Grove, Fla. — 56 lizards, 9 snakes,
frog; Harry Hoogstraal, Cairo, Egypt —
43 lizards, 4 snakes, 2 turtles, eastern Africa;
Karl Ludwig Koch, Germany — birdskin,
Madagascar; Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago
— 2 turtles, snake, lizard, Madagascar;
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Pascagoula,
Miss. — 46 fishes. Gulf of Mexico; August
Ziemer, Evergreen Park, 111. — collection of
fresh- water shells; Mac Hardy, Garfield, Ark.
— 3 garter snakes; Chicago Academy of
Sciences — 4 lizards, Hawaii; Chicago Zoo-
logical Society, Brookfield, 111. — 4 mammals,
Africa; Henry Dybas, Hazelcrest, 111. —
536 insects, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee;
Dr. Alfred Heinzelmann, Piura, Peru- — 11
small rodents; Dr. H. Holub, Indonesia —
turtle, lizard and jungle cat; Dr. William W.
Milstead, Alpine, Texas — 419 frogs, 61
lizards, 23 snakes, Brazil; Musee Royal du
Congo Beige, Tervuren, Belgium — 36 staphy-
linid beetles, Belgian Congo; William H.
Phelps, Caracas, Venezuela — 7 birdskins;
Dr. Gerald Scherba, Chicago — a salamander,
Mexico; Shedd Aquarium, Chicago — 2 fish
specimens

Library:

Books from Harry G. Nelson, Harvey, 111.

The giant pirarucu of the Amazon, one
of the largest fresh-water fishes of the
world, is shown in Hall 0.

PRINTED BY CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PRESS

This Month at the Museum

Saturdays, 10:30 a.m.. Movies for Children
Saturdays, 2:30 p.m., Filmi-Lectures for Adults

MUSEUM MEMBERS' NIGHT, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7

Preview of New Exhibits, Theatre Program, and

Open House (7 to 10:30 p.m.)

Page 2

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

October, 1955

You Are Cordially Invited . . .

OPEN HOUSE, FILMS, AND EXHIBIT PREVIEWS ON
MEMBERS' NIGHT, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7

THE THEME of Members' Night, which this year occurs on Friday,
October 7, is The Earth. All the basic facts about this whirling chunk
of solar system we inhabit — its origin, its structure and composition, what
its interior is like, the nature of its surface, its age, how and why its face is
constantly changing, the forces that act upon it from within and without —
are graphically presented in a series of 37 exhibits in the new Hall of the
Earth (Hall 34, Physical Geology) on the second floor of the Museum. A
preview of this hall is the feature of Members' Night.

expeditions to the Southwest, depicts a vil-
lage of the prehistoric Mogollon Indians.
These Indians, who have been traced back
some 4,500 years by Dr. Paul S. Martin, Chief
Curator of Anthropology, and his associates,
are represented at the stage of development
reached about a.d. 300. Second of the
dioramas, representing a desert tribe — the
Hohokam — who lived in the area between
Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona, shows the
type of village inhabited about a.d. 950.
A vivid representation of ceremonial dances
for the rain gods is represented in the third
diorama, which shows the famous Pueblo
Bonito in New Mexico as it is believed to
have been about a.d. 1100.

Also to be on public view for the first
time will be an exhibit in Hall 20 (Habitat
Groups of Birds) of the Department of
Zoology. In this exhibit, which demon-
strates iridescence in hummingbird feathers
by a clever combination of mounted speci-
mens and especially devised lighting, each
of eight birds is spotlighted automatically,
one after the other. Then these lights go out
and general lighting comes on. This alter-
nating cycle is repeated over and over.

In the center of the new hall are four
spectacular dioramas. In three of these,
while visitors watch, the light changes to
simulate in a fascinating way variations
in appearance that occur with the changing
time of day. One diorama illustrates the
effects of stream erosion with a model of
a scene in the Grand Canyon of Arizona.
Another diorama shows what a glacier is,
how it acts, and what it does to topography.
A third diorama illustrates the processes by
which volcanoes come into being and their
activity and its effects. The fourth diorama,
representing the interior of a cave, demon-
strates the solvent action of ground waters.

Many of the exhibits in the hall are given
to a comprehensive exposition of the subject
of rocks. From these exhibits the differences
between igneous, sedimentary, and meta-
morphic rocks become instantly clear to the
layman. The factors that characterize each
are impressed upon the visitor in a way
possible only by visual methods with three-
dimensional actual specimens accompanied
by explanatory material.

Other New Exhibits —

Also on Members' Night the Department
of Anthropology will present in Hall 7
(Ancient and Modern Indians of the South-
western United States) three new dioramas.
One, based on findings of the more than
twenty years of the Museum's archaeological

-THIS MONTH'S COVBR-

The tiger on our cover, walking
out of the jungle apparently right
into the camera (and camera
man!) is one of the thrills await-
ing those who attend the series of
film-lectures on Saturday after-
noons in October and November
in the Museum Theatre. This
majestic creature is one of the
"stars" among the many wild
animals appearing in John Meyer's
new film, "Shikar in India," to be
given on the third program, Oc-
tober 15. Details of lectures,
films, and speakers for the entire
season will be found on page 9.

Open House —

Open house on Members' Night has
always been popular, and again Members
are invited to enter the areas of the ground,
third, and fourth floors where "No Admit-
tance" signs usually bar the public from
laboratories, studios, workshops, and cura-
tors' offices. All members of the scientific
staff as well as taxidermists, artists, prepar-
ators, dioramists, and other technicians will
be present to greet the visitors and to explain
the intricacies of their varied specialties.
Most of these people are engaged in unusual
types of occupations not to be found any-
where else except in another natural history
museum, and they will demonstrate what
they do and explain the whys and hows.
The sanctums of all departments and divi-
sions— Anthropology, Botany, Geology,
Zoology, Library, Harris Public School
Extension, and others — will have the wel-
come sign on open doors. For those anxious
to conserve time and have their progress
expedited, small conducted tour-groups will
be escorted at frequent intervals by the
seven young women who are guide-lecturers

Chicago Natural History Museum

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893
Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago 5

Telephone; WAbash 2-9410

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lester Arhour Henry P. Isham

Sewell L. Avery Hughston M. McBain

Wii. McCoBMicK Blair William H. Mitchell

Walther Buchen John T. Pirie, Jr.

Walter J. Cummings Clarence B. Randall

Joseph N. Field George A. Richardson

Marshall Field John G. Sbarle

Marshall Field, Jr. Solomon A. Smith

Stanley Field Louis Ware

Samuel Insull, Jr. John P. Wilson

OFFICERS

Stanley Field Pretidmt

Marshall Field Firit Vice-President

Hughston M. McBain Second Vice-PrendeTU

Joseph N. Field Third Vice-President

Solomon A. Smith Treasurer

Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary

John R. Millar Assistant Secretary

THE BULLETIN

EDITOR
Clifford C. Gregg Director of the Museum

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology

Theodor Just Chief Curator of Botany

Sharat K. Roy Chief Curator of Geology

Austin L. Rand Chief Curator of Zoology

MANAGING EDITOR
H. B. Harte Public Relations Counsel

ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Helen A. MacMinn Jane Rockwell

Members are requested to inform the Museum
promptly of changes of address.

on the staff of the James Nelson and Anna
Louise Raymond Foundation. Those Mu-
seum Members and their guests who prefer
to wander independently through the
behind-the-scenes areas are welcome to do so.

Theatre Program —

At 9 P.M. in the James Simpson Theatre
there will be a program featuring a lecture
with color films by Dr. Sharat K. Roy, Chief
Curator of Geology. Dr. Roy recently
returned from an expedition to study vol-
canoes in Central America. He will give
you a glimpse of Central America and tell
of his experiences relating to volcanoes and
volcanism. The program will be rounded
out with other motion pictures on geological
subjects, including "In the Beginning," the
dramatic story of the formation of the earth
as revealed in the Grand Canyon of Arizona
(this film is presented through the courtesy
of the General Petroleum Corporation).

Cafeteria; Special Buses —

Although the Members' Night program
does not begin until 7 p.m., the doors of the
Museum building will be open from 6 o'clock
on. For those who wish to dine at the
Museum, the Cafeteria on the ground floor
will offer its services at regular prices from
6 to 8 P.M.

There is ample free parking-space at the
north of the Museum building. For those
(Continued on page 8, column 3)

October, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 3

DIORAMAS TELL STORY OF ANCIENT SOUTHWEST INDIANS

Bv ELAINE BLUHM

ASSISTANT IN ARCHAEOLOGY

LIFE as it was lived centuries ago in
villages of prehistoric Indians of the
Southwest is vividly portrayed in three
miniature dioramas just completed at the
Museum.

After a preview of these exhibits for guests
of the Museum on Members' Night, Friday,
October 7 {7 to 10:30 p.m.), the dioramas will
be on permanent display for the general public.

Preparation of these exhibits has been the
major task for the past two years of Alfred
Lee Rowell, Dioramist in the Department

Museum for the past sixteen years. The
part of the village shown in this diorama
was excavated by Dr. Paul S. Martin, Chief
Curator, and his staff in 1939 and 1940.
The village, located on a ridge in the pine
forest, was occupied between 200 B.C. and
A.D. 500. The houses were pit-houses — pits
roofed with poles and mud. The diorama
shows one completed house and one under
construction.

The second diorama shows part of a Ho-
hokam village in the desert near Phoenix,
Arizona, as it must have looked about a.d.
950. The Hohokam Indians were farmers

piles outside the village's "residence area."
The third diorama is a model of Pueblo
Bonito, an Anasazi village in Chaco Canyon.
The Anasazi were the Pueblo farmers of the
plateau area of northern New Mexico and
Arizona, southeastern Utah, and south-
western Colorado. Pueblo Bonito, the
largest pueblo apartment house in the
Southwest, was excavated by the National
Geographic Society Expeditions under the
direction of Dr. Neil M. Judd. The village
was D-shaped and the houses rose to
a height of four stories in front of the cliff.
Inside, around the plaza, were kivas, or

MOUhL OF IHJKBLO BONITO IN CHACO CANVON, NEW MEXICO
One of new dioramas in Hall 7 of prehistoric Indians of the Southwest. Kokochi kachina dancers and clowns in foreground are performing rain ceremonies

of Anthropology. The dioramas show three
different prehistoric cultures, three different
prehistoric periods, and three different
environments of the Southwest. They are
installed in the central part of Hall 7
(Ancient and Modern Indians of the South-
western United States).

Dioramist Rowell modeled the fore-
grounds, painted the backgrounds, and, by
the use of special modeling and casting
techniques, created the figures and acces-
sories. The curatorial staff of the Depart-
ment of Anthropology supplied the research
and information required to reconstruct the
prehistoric cultures and environments.

MOGOLLON PIT-HOUSE

The first diorama .shows part of a pit-house
village of the MogoUon Indians who lived
in the mountainous area of west-central New
Mexico and eastern Arizona. The MogoUon
culture has been studied by archaeological
expeditions of Chicago Natural History

who constructed a network of irrigation
canals in order to raise crops in the desert
area of southern Arizona. The village
shown in the diorama is Snaketown, exca-
vated in 1934 by the staff of the Gila Pueblo,
under the direction of H. S. Gladwin.

COURT FOR BALL GAME

Snaketown was a village of some impor-
tance. In the town was a ball court, shown
on the background of the diorama, where
we believe the Indians played a game related
to that played by the Mayas in meso-
America. Hohokam houses were built in
pits and roofed over with poles and mud.
Ramadas, or shades, of poles and leaves
provided pleasant working-space outside of
the houses. Refuse accumulated in large

MUSEUM MEMBERS' NIGHT
Friday, October 7

ceremonial rooms, which were entered by
ladders from the roof. It is estimated that
at one time 1,200 people lived in the pueblo.

DANCE TO BRING RAIN

This diorama shows the pueblo as it must
have looked about A.D. 1125. In the plaza
Indian men are doing a Kokochi dance.
This dance takes place in the summer, after
the summer solstice (June 21) and is de.signed
to bring rain and happiness to the people.
The Kokochi kachinas wear kilts, and their
bodies are painted with pink clay. Opposite
them dance the kachina maidens, men
dressed as women in black dresses. Also in
the line are two Upoyona or Cotton-head
kachinas with long blue snouts on their
masks, and at the head of the line is a priest
wearing no mask, who leads the dance and
sprinkles sacred corn-meal from the bowl
he is holding. The Mud-head kachinas in
black kilts with masks and bodies covered
(Continued on page 8, column 3)

Page i

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

October, 1955

THESE ARE YOUR HOSTS
FOR MEMBERS' NIGHT

AHUNDRED AND FIFTY or more
Museum people will be on hand to
greet guests at the Museum Members' Night
festivities on Friday evening, October 7.
Unfortunately, it is possible to introduce
here only a few of these people who keep the
Museum going. They will be found in their
own offices, laboratories, and studios, or,
on Member's Night, in the exhibition halls
and the Museum Theatre.

Hosts for the Museum at large will be the
Director, Colonel Clifford C. Gregg, and the
Deputy Director, John R. Millar. In their
case, introductions are superfluous because
these men, in their administrative capacities,
maintain relations between the Museum and
its Members or between the Museum and the
public. We pass directly, therefore, to the
cloistered quarters of the scientists, artists,
and technicians, most of whom are located
on the third floor, with a few occupying
ateliers on the ground floor and on the
fourth floor.

Department of Anthropology —

Your host in this department will be Dr.
Paul S. Martin, Chief Curator, who can find
the concealed burial place of a centuries-
dead Indian or a de-
posit of prehistoric
artifacts like a Geiger
counter can locate
radio-activity. For
more than twenty
years Dr. Martin's
major task has been
the leadership of the
Museum's Southwest
Archaeological Expe-
ditions. His discov-
eries and research have
opened new vistas
reaching back thou-
sands of years in life among America's
earliest aboriginals. Associated with him
in this task are three divisional curators:
Dr. Donald Collier, George I. Quimby, and
Dr. John B. Rinaldo. Proving that women,
too, can have a flair for archaeology is
a more recent addition to the staff in the
person of Miss Elaine Bluhm. The Division
of Asiatic Archaeology and Ethnology is the
province of Curator M. Kenneth Starr.

Department of Botany —

The Museum has acquired a special status
among its sister institutions of other cities
— it is the only general museum that has
given exhibition space to the Plant Kingdom
comparable with that devoted to other
branches of natural history. The Museum's
Chief Curator of Botany is Dr. Theodor
Just, who came here from a professorship
at the University of Notre Dame (home of
"the Irish"). Backing scientific integrity
with audacity, he has not hesitated on

Paul S. Martin

a St. Patrick's Day to proclaim that there
is no such thing as an authentic shamrock
per se. Born in Austria, Dr. Just began his
scientific career at the Museum of Natural
History in Vienna.

0He specializes in fossil
gymnosperms, partic-
ularly cycads, their
distribution and their
evolutionary history.
His four principal
associates are Dr.
Julian A. Steyermark,
curator in charge of
flowering plants; Dr.
Francis Drouet, cura-

Theodor Just

tor in charge of crypto-
gamic botany (mosses,
algae, etc.); Dr. John

W. Thieret, Curator of Economic Botany;

and Emil Sella, Curator of Exhibits.

Department of Geology —

Dr. Sharat K. Roy, born in India, chose
an extreme opposite type of area for pro-
fessional specialization — his principal ex-
peditions and researches have been in the
Far North — New-
foundland, Labrador,
and Baffin Island.
However, he has also
made extensive vol-
canological and sei.s-
mological investiga-
tions in Central Amer-
ica. Assisting him in
the reception of visi-
tors will be four
paleontologists: Dr.
Rainer Zangerl, Cura-
tor of Fossil Reptiles;
Dr. Eugene Richard-
son, Jr., Curator of Fossil Invertebrates;
Dr. Robert H. Denison, Curator of
Fossil Fishes; and William D. Turnbull,
Assistant Curator of Fossil Mammals.
Guests will be received also by Harry E.
Changnon, Curator of Exhibits.

Department of Zoology —

New as a department head (having been
appointed Chief Curator only last July) but
already widely known for his work at the
Museum since his appointment in 1947 as
Curator of Birds is Dr. Austin L. Rand.
He was named Chief Curator upon the
recent retirement into curator-emeritus
status of his predecessor. Dr. Karl P.
Schmidt. A Canadian by birth. Dr. Rand
has ranged many parts of the world for other
museums as well as this one in the conduct
of scientific expeditions. His popular stories
about various birds, which appear regularly
in the Museum Bulletin and other pub-
lications and have been collected in two

Sharat K. Roy

Austin L. Rand

MUSEUM MEMBERS' NIGHT
Friday, October 7

volumes, give him a unique place among
ornithologists. He now directs the largest
department staff of the Museum, among the
members of which are Colin C. Sanborn and
Philip Hershkovitz in
the Division of Mam-
mals; Emmet R.
Blake, Curator of
Birds; Loren P.
Woods, Curator of
Fishes; Rupert L.
Wenzel, Curator of
Insects, and Associate
Curator Henry S.
Dybas; D. Dwight
Davis, Curator of
Anatomy; Dr. Fritz
Haas, Curator of
Lower invertebrates;

and Dr. Robert F. Inger, Curator of Am-
phibians and Reptiles. Also present on
Members' Night will be former Chief Cu-
rator Schmidt. After thirty-three years of
expeditions and research for the Museum
in all parts of the world, Dr. Schmidt,
despite retirement, still occupies a labora-
tory at the Museum and fills a full-time
working schedule in the pursuit of his
specialty, herpetological research.

School Extensions —

With due deference to the principals and
teachers of the public, parochial, and private
schools, it may still be asserted that the two
teachers with the largest classes in Chicago
are on the staff of the Museum — because
their classes include all the half million or
more pupils in all the classes of all the
teachers in all the schools of the city. Un-
like Mother Hubbard, both of them have so
many children to take care of that they do
know what to do — and they do it. These
two busy people are Richard A. Martin,
Curator of the Department of the N. W.
Harris Public School Extension, and Miss
Miriam Wood, Chief of the James Nelson
and Anna Louise Raymond Foundation for
Public School and Children's Lectures.

Curator Martin came to his schoolmaster
role by a roundabout route — he joined the
Museum staff in 1934, serving first as a mem-
ber of archaeological

expeditions to Iraq,

Iran, and other Near
Eastern areas. In
1937 he was appointed
Curator of Near East-
ern Archaeology and in
1946 was transferred
to his educational post
as curator of his pres-
ent department, the
function of which is to
circulate throughout
Richard A. Martin the school year hun-
dreds of traveling
natural-history exhibits in all of Chicago's
schools.

(Continued on page 8, column 1)

October, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 5

SAFARIS MOLD SCIENTISTS AND ENRICH OUR MUSEUMS

By AUSTIN L. RAND

CHIEF CURATOR OF ZOOLOGY

SAFARI is a magic word. It conjures up
visions of camps in far places and lines of
laden porters on the march. "Safari" put
into a news release from the Museum about
any sort of expedition, not just one to East
Africa where the word originated, practi-
cally guarantees that the item will be used
by the press and that the public will read it.

In telling about birds and bird men and
about bird collections and museums, the
safaris, or expeditions as we usually call
them, are logical and fitting places to start.
Most museum specimens have been collected
by expeditions and, for many a museum
man, expeditions have pleasant personal
associations.

Many a great naturalist owes much to his
early expeditions. They gave him material
to think about and inspiration to use it,
and they helped in shaping his ideas. The
greatest naturalist, Charles Darwin, got the
idea he later elaborated into his Origin of
Species while on The Voyage of the "Beagle."
This theory gave us our present-day concept
of evolution, descent with modification,
that has so strongly affected our philosophy
of man and nature. Another naturalist-
philosopher. Prince Peter Kropotkin, in-
troduces his book on Mutual Aid — an idea
that seems to be coming back into fashion —
with the sentence, "Two aspects of faunal
life impressed me during the journey which
I made in my youth in eastern Siberia and
northern Manchuria."

AN EXCITING START

A chance to go on an expedition has given
many a young naturalist his start in his
career. I got my start that way. It is
a wonderful way to see the world, to go as
a peripatetic naturalist, see the main cities
of the world, and then to live in the country
where the collecting is to be done, investi-
gating it, drawing up descriptions of its
terrain, climate, vegetation, and people
for the introduction to the main report,
which contains an account of the birds that
you find there with notes on everything
you can find out about them.

The very names of the places I've stopped
call up a host of memories: names such as
Ambohimarahavava, Ihosy, Sonsonata, Mira
Mundo, Manokwari, Tafa, Tagbilaran on
Bohol, Little Evie's Lake, Manyberries,
Wildhorse, Jaydot, Hicoria, Whiskey Slew,
Hardscrabble Mountain, Boot Island, not
to mention ports of call on the way to places
— Marseilles, Majunga, Amsterdam, Bata-
via, San Pedro, and Samarai. These are
place-names to dream on. Some I will see
again, mo.st of them I won't. I'd like to
live over the times and places again, but
more likely there will be new and different
ones in the future. Museum collecting days
are wonderful days.

The Museum collector is not really happy
until he has established his camp in the
jungle or on the plains and is spending his
mornings getting specimens, his afternoons
preparing them. The natives can be a big
help in securing birds. The variety that
natives get into their methods of collecting
birds makes the museum collector seem
a plodder indeed. The latter depends on
a shotgun and chooses his shot according
to his bird: coarse shot for large ones and
fine shot for small ones, so as not to injure
the plumage. The native to whom firearms
are fantastically expensive in his scale of
living, if available at all, still uses the
methods our ancestors did before they had

On the two pages that follow,
the many steps involved in the
operation of a Museum expedition
are illustrated in a comprehensive
series of sketches.

fowling pieces. Then falconry, nets, snares,
and bird lime were commonplace in Europe,
and they still are commonplace among some
tropical peoples.

MAN-PROPELLED DECOYS

One of the most intriguing ways of catch-
ing birds used by natives is the wading for
ducks, a system I found in Madagascar
where the natives brought me flamingoes,
ducks, and gallinules they'd caught that
way. But Dr. Salim Ali gives the best
description I've seen of this craft as prac-
ticed in northern India. Coots that swarm
on Manchhar Lake in Upper Sind are the
chief game. The local Mohana poles his
boat as near the flock as he thinks is safe.
Then he dons a duckskin hat and slips into
the water. He submerges until the duck hat,
which has head and neck naturally posed,
seems to be a duck swimming. The Mo-
hana, thus camouflaged and watching
through holes cut in the hat, slowly edges
up to the flock of coots and seizes one after
another by its feet, pulls it under, and ties
it to his belt. Finally the coots become
suspicious and patter off, but a good
operator may have from ten to fifteen coots
on his belt by then.

The habitats of a bird may make a special
method of capture possible, as with the
Argus pheasant. This magnificent pheasant
clears a display ground for itself in the
forest of Borneo, and this the Dyaks cap-
italize on. They take a piece of bamboo,
that many-purpose plant of the tropics, and

MUSEUM MEMBERS' NIGHT
Friday, October 7

shave it thin to a razor-like edge. This they
plant firmly in the ground in the Argus
pheasant's display area. The male Argus
pheasant, returning, tries to remove the
sliver of bamboo. But it is firmly anchored.
In trying to pull it out, the pheasant twists
it and pushes against it and finally by
accident rubs its neck along the razor edge
and cuts its own throat.

No matter how the museum collector
gets his birds, he turns them all into museum
specimens. The oldest museum bird speci-
mens are said to be a half dozen or so given
to the museum in Upsala, Sweden, in 1747.
They are thus something over two hundred
years old. There are other older examples of
prepared birds, notably the birds from
tombs in Egypt, preserved as mummies.
The oldest mounted bird that has come to
my attention is an African gray parrot
about 250 years old. It, too, was connected
with a tomb, but in Westminster Abbey,
and is the only parrot to gain that eminence
in death. Sir Norman Kinnear tells the
story.

This parrot belonged to Frances, Duchess
of Richmond, who as Frances Stuart was
known as "la belle Stuart." She was the
mistress of Charles 11, was described by
Pepys in his diary, and in her will left money
to found a home for stray cats, causing
Alexander Pope to write, "Dying, endow
a college for cats." She was fond of animals,
and when she died, the parrot, which sur-
vived her by only a few days, was mounted
in a life-like pose and placed along with
a wax effigy of the lady in her Queen Anne
coronation dress near the tomb in which
Lady Frances rested with her husband in
the Abbey.

Scientific collections of birds got a late
start, probably because no way of preserving
birds was known. The pioneer bird men.
Turner of England and Gesner of Germany,
in the mid-16th century, and the greatest
ornithologists of the 17th century, Willugh-
by and Ray, worked mostly from sketches
and drawings and rarely were able to have
a "dried" bird for study.

BEGAN WITH PLUMES

Though the 1500's and 1600's were periods
of exploration, drawings rather than speci-
mens were the bird material brought back.
But out of these voyages may have come
the germ of an idea. The Mollucan bird
hunters of the East Indies brought bird-
of-paradise plumes from New Guinea and
traded them to the Western World. These
New Guinea plumes had been prepared
for the trade by the bird being skinned and
a stick thrust through it. Such "skins"
reached Europe by 1522 and may have
suggested to European ornithologists the
idea of skinning birds. But Belion in 1555,
giving directions for preparing birds, still
(Continued on page 11, column 3)

EXPEDITIONS '

BY AUSTIN L. RAND, WITH

The bird specimens in museums are the guarantees of authen-
ticity that stand back of the books written about birds. Chicago
Natural History Museum's bird collection of some 240,000
specimens is one of the important bird collections in the world.

A series of expeditions is the best way of building up a collection.
We may get some specimens through exchange, purchase, or

■"■ Stan of the expedition. In the offices of the Division of Birds the area to be

viitited IS decided on, plans are made, and equipment is ordered and gathered.

Expedition personnel is carefully selected. Preferably we send professional

naturalists or men who have trained themselves for such a position. They must

be practical enough to arrange for food and water, shelter, and transportation

where such things are scarce; they must be hunters enough to collect the animals

and prcparators enough lo make them into proper specimens and get them dry,

packed, and safely shipped home; they must be biologists enough to know what

are desirable specimens and what records and notes are of value; they must be

diplomats enough to deal with foreign officials and native potentates, often in (or-

eign languages; and they must be managers enough to handle museum funds and

direct expedition workers. Only key men are sent on expeditions.

Local persons are recruited on the spot, as carriers, camp help.

and hunters. They know the country and its problems. Their

rate of pay is low. and they don't need transportation. They

form a link between the expedition and the country.

Once on location, in the field as we call it. travel may be more primitive: by carriers— by pack
train— by canoe— or even by jeep.

.g^^oi

^ -

■si, ' ^^^^S^^'^^O^^m^ J'

^>

; >;^_^ '.-::*sSH|pi

^'■■'■^/,

The jungle is the laboratory where the
birds are sought and observations made
in the humid tropics.

To prepare a speci
along breast and al:

A collector's camp in the field. The wise museum man carries a tab
for he can work better in comfort; the native helper is working o
on a box.

Page 6

0 GET BIRDS

SWINGS BY RUTH ANDRIS

even gift, but nothing takes the place of an expedition with
trained museum personnel. Not only does it bring back a good
representation of the bird life but also a knowledge of the coun-
try and the local conditions affecting bird habits and habitats.
This aids greatly in understanding the problems that arise later
in writing about the birds.

The collector shoots most of his speci-
mens, using small shot so as not to dam-
age the plumage.

But native help is invaluable for getting many
small, rare or shy birds:

by setting snares I

by shooting with a many-pointed arrow
and by rigging bird nets I

Our interests span the world. The X's mark areas from which
Chicago Natural History Museum bird division has received bird
specimens in the last seven years.

t^

f

P^^^

nl^''J''^^FS

^^^E

%^

Pt^

^V

the skin is opened

The body is removed. Skull, wings, and leg
bones are cleaned and preservative applied.

An artificial body of tow. cotton, or other material
is inserted.

The t'lnished specimen looks like a bird,
lying on its back, with legs crossed and
labeled with date and place of capture.

chair,
ornbill

The collector finishing a parrot specimen. His tools are few: scissors,
scalpel, and forceps. Note catalogue and labels at hand.

The dry specimens are packed into a wooden box for shipment and. on the coast,
may be taken out to a waiting schooner by dinghy to start the first leg of the jour-
ney back to the Museum.

Page 7

u-iiuJiuiWiyi-iaj-Km

Page 8

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

October, 1955

Miriam Wood

YOUR HOSTS-

(Continued from page i)
The Raymond Foundation, with a staff
of Miss Wood and six other young women,
carries natural-science lessons via other
media to the same vast audience of school
children. They present in the schools ex-
tension lectures with films and slides and
are also in charge of the free motion-picture
programs and other educational entertain-
ments given in the Museum Theatre each
spring, summer, and fall. They conduct
also the guide-lecture tours of the Museum
for both children and adults, and write the
children's stories published by the Museum.

Miss Wood has di-
rected the course of the
Raymond Founda-
tion's activities with
such enthusiasm and
such success that the
Foundation's work has
become a model for
similar work conduct-
ed by institutions in
many other cities.
Her counsel has been
eagerly sought on mat-
ters of education in
natural history by

teachers and principals of the schools in this
city and by organizations such as Boy Scouts,
Girl Scouts, camp directors, and others
concerned in the guidance of youth. Her
first concern always is the children them-
selves— to devise the best ways to heighten
their interest in the natural sciences and to
develop their powers of observation of the
life of the plants and animals they discover
wherever they may go. She has found in
this work an inspiration — and her methods,
her devotion, and her energy in turn have
inspired the members of her staff, hundreds
of teachers, and thousands of children.

Miss Wood and the other Raymond Foun-
dation lecturers will conduct the escorted tours
of the Museum for guests on Members' Night.

The Library —

No scientific institution or its staff could
get very far without a good library for
reference. With some
135,000 volumes on its
shelves, the Museum's
Library is the larg-
est in its specialized
fields west of the AI-
leghenies. The Librar-
ian presiding over it is
Mrs. Meta P. Howell
whose seemingly limit-
less energies are devot-
ed to making the Li-
brary's service as near-
ly perfect as may be
attainable. And here
it may well be noted that no .matter how
fine and complete a collection of books may
be, its value would be largely lost to those

Meu P. Howell

who need it for research if it lacked admin-
istration by a capable librarian. Mrs.
Howell has a sixth sense that anticipates the
needs of the scientific staff, so that reference
works required are practically always on
hand and immediately available when re-
quested. Under her supervision the Library
has also augmented its service to the public
in general. Mrs. Howell and her staff will
welcome visitors in the Library on Members'
Night.

CHILDREN'S FREE MOVIES
BEGIN OCTOBER 1

Beginning October 1 the Museum's James
Simpson Theatre will be well occupied
Saturday mornings with hundreds of young-
sters attending the autumn series of free
motion-pictures for children. Presented
at 10:30 a.m. each Saturday during October
and November by the James Nelson and
Anna Louise Raymond Foundation, the
programs offer a wide variety of entertaining
and educational films.

Children are invited to attend the pro-
grams alone, accompanied by parents or
other adults, or in groups from schools, clubs,
or other centers. No tickets are needed.
Following are the titles and dates:

October 1 — Neptune's Children

An exploration of the wonderful world of

sea and skirting shore
Story by Robert C. Hermes

October 8 — Pueblo Boy

Story of a Pueblo Indian boy
Also a cartoon

October 15 — Nature's Half Acre

A Disney "True-Life Adventure"

color movie
Also a cartoon

October 22 — American Cowboy

The story of real cowboys and life on their

ranch
Also a cartoon

October 29 — A Tale of Two Grizzlies

Story by Cleveland P. Grant

November 5 — Some Favorite Animals

Also a cartoon

November 12 — Ti-Jean Goes Lumbering

And other lumbering stories
Also a cartoon

November 19 — Winter Hobbies

Also a cartoon

November 26 — Wind from the West

Lapland story
Also a cartoon

MEMBERS' NIGHT-

{Continued from page 2)
who do not wish to drive their cars, special
free motor-bus service has been arranged.
A special bus marked to indicate Museum
shuttle-service will leave Jackson Boulevard
at State Street at 15-minute intervals be-
ginning at 6:30 p.m. The last bus will
leave the Museum at 10:45 p.m. In both
directions the bus will make an intermediate
stop at 7th Street and Michigan Avenue.
This transportation is free — no fares col-
lected, no transfers required.

Meet the Creative Artists —

The dioramas in the Hall of the Earth are
the work of George Marchand, well-known
sculptor of West Seneca, New York. Mr.
Marchand in 1951 prepared for Frederick
J. V. Skiff Hall (Hall 37) ten dioramas
representing prehistoric invertebrate life
and is noted for his exhibition work in many
other museums. The four dioramas now
being prepared are his first venture into the
creation of exhibits in the field of physical
geology and the first use of his own patented
system of automatic lighting that simulates
the changes in light during a day. The other
exhibits in the hall were prepared, under the
supervision of Chief Curator Roy, by Harry
E. Changnon, Curator of Exhibits in
Geology, Preparators Henry Horback and
Henry U. Taylor, and Miss Maidi Wiebe,
Artist in the Department of Geology.

The three new dioramas of prehistoric
American Indians are the work of Alfred
Lee Rowell, Dioramist in the Department
of Anthropology, with the supervision and
counsel of Chief Curator Martin and George
I. Quimby, Curator of North American
Archaeology and Ethnology.

The exhibit illustrating the iridescence of
hummingbirds was prepared by Carl W.
Cotton, Taxidermist in the Department of
Zoology. The Museum's Division of En-
gineering co-operated in devising the me-
chanical features of the exhibit.

MUSEUM MEMBERS' NIGHT
Friday, October 7

SOUTHWEST DIORAMAS-

{Continued frmn page 3)
with pink clay are clowns who entertain the
audience between dances and watch closely
to assist the dancers during the ceremony.
The only music for the dancing comes from
the shaking of the rattles and the chanting
of the dancers. The ceremony is patterned
after one performed at Zuni today, but
similar ceremonies are performed in the other
pueblos in the Southwest, and this one
probably has been in use for a long time.

An innovation in the display of these
dioramas is their arrangement in a hex-
agonal pylon in the center of Hall 7. Each
diorama can be viewed from two windows
in the hexagon.

In other cases in Hall 7 are actual speci-
mens of pottery, cradles, clothing, and tools.

October, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 9

SATURDAY AFTERNOON LECTURES TO BEGIN OCTOBER 1

WHERE would you like to go? A wide
variety of travel adventure, ranging
from the Bahamas to the Yukon, to India,
and to South America, is offered for those
who wish to see far places without leaving
Chicago.

Opening on October 1, Chicago Natural
History Museum will present its 104th
series of free illustrated lectures provided
by the Edward E. Ayer Lecture Foundation
F\ind. Well-known explorers with color
motion-pictures of their exploits will appear
each Saturday afternoon throughout Oc-
tober and November in the James Simpson
Theatre of the Museum. All of the pro-
grams are free, and all will begin at 2:30

P.M.

Although limited accommodations make it
necessary to restrict admittance to adults,
children will have their own series of free
motion-picture programs, provided by the
Raymond Foundation, on the mornings of
the same Saturdays.

The programs for adults are as follows:

October 1 — Between the Tides

Robert C. Hermes

On color film Robert Hermes has captured
the majesty and mystery of the sea in his
story of the weird forms of life that inhabit
its depths and its shores. To make his pic-
tures he traveled to such widely separated
places as the Bahamas, Nova Scotia, the
Pacific Coast, and Hawaii. He has gone
beneath the waves in tidepools with special
submarine-camera apparatus to photograph
the mysteries of the teeming life beneath the
surface. His films abound in fascinating
views of flying sea-birds and wading shore-
birds on their patrols at the water's edge,
and of patterns of sunlight and wind on
water and rocks.

October 8— The Land the Glaciers
Forgot

Howard L. Orians

One of the most curious phenomena of the
Middle West is a huge area that was com-
pletely bypassed by the great glaciers. The
contrasts between this driftless section and
the glaciated areas are recorded in these
noteworthy geological films. Orians also
shows the wildlife of this unique region — its
bears, otters, and many more commonly
encountered animals. Especially interesting
are his studies of birds.

October 15 — Shikar in India

John Moyer

"Shikar" is an Indian word equivalent to
"safari" in Africa. During several years in
India on a mission for the United States
government, John Moyer, who is head of the
Museum's Division of Motion Pictures,
made some truly sensational films of that
vast country's animal life. The audience

will thrill at tigers and elephants that
threaten to come right out of the screen and
walk down the aisles of the theatre, so close
did they approach Moyer's camera lenses.
There are adventures with rhinos and water
buffalo, probably the most dangerous of all
big game. Especially exciting is a roundup
of thousands of wild elephants from the
jungle into a stockade where those suitable
for training as work animals are selected.

October 22 — Strange People, Strange
Places

Irving Johnson

This film and the narrative of Commander
Irving Johnson, U.S.N. R. form an epic of
adventure — the story of the voyage of the

RESERVED SEATS

FOR MEMBERS

No tickets are necessary for ad-
mission to these lectures. A sec-
tion of the Theatre is allocated to
Members of the Museum, each of
whom is entitled to two reserved
seats. Requests for these seats
should be made in advance by
telephone (WAbash 2-9410) or in
writing, and seats will be held in
the Member's name until 2:25
o'clock on the lecture day.

Yankee, one of the last of the square-rigged
sailing ships, manned by a crew of young
men and women without previous experience
afloat. These young people sail to remote
seldom-visited places, often through un-
charted waters, and mingle with some of the
world's least-known peoples. In New
Guinea they dwell with tribes still living in
a Stone Age culture, after taking their ship
300 miles up an uncharted river where
floating islands from which they can pick
coconuts lodge against the ship's bow and
travel with the ship. Borneo, Siam, Bali,
and various parts of Africa are logged in
their itinerary.

October 29 — Northwest by West

Cleveland P. Grant

A former member of this Museum's staff,
Cleveland Grant is recognized as one of
America's leading nature cinematographers.
In his present film he will take his audience
from Montana through British Columbia,
the Yukon, and Alaska. He relates the
story of the Old West, the Gold Rush areas.

MUSEUM MEMBERS' NIGHT
Friday, October 7

and the pioneers. Grizzly bears, Alaska
moose, and a variety of birds are seen
through his camera's-eye. Spectacular is
a mating-time battle of bull bison, each
weighing more than a ton. Grant also shows
such garden spots as the orchards of Oka-
nagan Valley in British Columbia, which he
calls "the nearest place to Shangri-la we
have ever found."

November 5 — Brazil

Karl Robinson

Brazil, largest country of South America
(vaster than the United States in territorial
extent), is a land of startling contrasts
ranging from barely explored Amazon jungles
to modern and beautiful cities such as Rio
de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. All of this great
country's aspects are brilliantly represented
in this remarkable color-film survey. Robin-
son brings out the importance of the coffee
and rubber plantations to the nation's
economy. Interesting, too, are his sequences
of the life of the rugged vaqueiros (ranchers)
and their herds in the semi-desert northwest,
the jaugadeiros (raft-fishermen) of the coast,
and the remnants in some areas of a culture
brought from Africa. He even takes his
audience underground into the world's
deepest operating gold mine and into the
precious-stone mines of Minas Gerais.

November 12 — From Dodos to Devil
Rays (in the remote islands of the
Indian Ocean)

Quentin Keynes

A great grandson of Charles Darwin,
Quentin Keynes made an expedition of his
own in the wake of the famous "Voyage of
the 'Beagle' " and the results are recorded
in color films that concentrate on the un-
expected in out-of-the-way places. Keynes
started out on a search for a dodo and,
although he did not find a live specimen
of the long-extinct creature, he did find
a skeleton in the island of Mauritius. He
sought adventure also in the little-known
islands of Rodriguez, Reunion, Glorioso,
Aldabra, and the Seychelles. His motion
pictures are packed with such thrills as the
harpooning and capture of a giant devil ray
and a 10,000-foot climb into the rugged and
precipitous mountains and volcanoes of
Reunion.

November 19 — Indonesia Today

Lester F. Beck

The first complete all-color film made in
Indonesia since the war is presented by Dr.
Beck as an authentic record of one of the
most fascinating areas in the Orient. Su-
matra, Java, and Bali are all on the itin-
erary— their small villages and remote
beauty spots as well as their wondrous and
mystical cities. Fully as interesting as the
(Continiced on page 12, column 1)

Page 10

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

October, 1955

WITH THANKS TO ALL
WHO AID RESEARCH

By earl E. SHERFF
research associate in systematic botany

NUMEROUS accounts are to be found
in museum bulletins of expeditions
undertaken by staff members in the prose-
cution of their scientific researches. In-
teresting and instructive, these rightly
receive prominent notice. Less numerous
are citations of those persons or institutions
to whom an author's thanks are due for
important aid — aid so vital to the author's
studies that without it many undertakings
could never have been successfully com-
pleted. In looking back over several
decades of research at Chicago Natural
History Museum (or Field Museum of
Natural History, as it was called when this
research started), I was reminded of
a number of such instances that seem wor-
thy of mention, although doubtless they are
but typical of the wonderful spirit of co-
operation commonly found among scientific
workers throughout the world.

In 1915 I was engaged in monographing
the large genus Bidens, a genus of Compo-
sitae related to the well-known genera
Coreopsis and Dahlia. First-hand infor-
mation was needed about certain West
Indies species that were distinguished by
a climbing habit, and it was impossible to
launch an expedition to the West Indies
at that time. We therefore wrote to
William Harris, superintendent of public
gardens for the Department of Agriculture
in Jamaica, telling him of our urgent need.
He promised his whole-hearted assistance
and embarked upon a small expedition of
his own that required several days of
arduous travel in the mountains and in-
volved the use of several pack mules and
much camp equipment.

VINE LOCATED

Finally, at Cedar Valley, St. Thomas (in
western Jamaica), he located the very kind
of vine that had been most desired and was
able to send us pressed specimens and ripe
seeds. Subsequently a seed was planted
in Chicago and a large vine obtained that
soon was multiplied by cuttings into many
vines. Thereupon the authorities at the
University of Chicago kindly allowed us
to transfer the vines to the university's
greenhouses and to keep them there under
observation until all matters of leaf-outline,
leaf-division, etc., could be settled. Mr.
Harris died long ago, but his generous and
unstinting co-operation made possible the
settling of several moot points in a revi-
sional treatment of Bidens, which the Mu-
seum published in 1937.

In this revisional treatment of Bidens it
was proposed originally to illustrate all or
most of the species with full-page plates.
These were being prepared from borrowed
herbarium specimens sent to Chicago from

various institutions throughout the world.
Around 1915, when World War I made
ocean transport hazardous, most foreign
institutions were compelled to discontinue
shipping specimens across the ocean. And
then what has always seemed to us a most
unusual ge.sture of friendly co-operation
came to us from Sir David Prain, Director
of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Eng-
land, and Dr. Otto Stapf, the famous
botanist at the head of Kew Herbarium.
These men directed that the sheets on which
were mounted invaluable type specimens
desired for our plates be carefully divided
into two parts each, one part to be sent to
the United States on loan for sketching and
then kept on this side of the ocean until the
end of the war. Meanwhile, of course, the
other part would not leave the Kew Her-
barium but would remain there to represent
for all time the species of which it was the
type.

And so, with the aid of these fractional
sheets, supplemented by my own collection
of large photographs taken at Kew before
the outbreak of the war, it was pos.sible to
illustrate sixteen more species of the genus
Bidens. Both Sir David and Dr. Stapf died
many years ago, but .some of the most im-
portant of the full-page plates that finally
were published in 1937 are a testimonial
to their exceptionally kind aid.

PECULIAR CASE

A strange case of a different sort of co-
operation pertained to a new species of
kukui, or candlenut, tree, a more detailed

AID TO RESEARCH

Leaves from the type sheet of Aleurites Reinyi,

known by the common name Remy's kukui or

candlenut tree. The type specimen is preserved

in the Museum of Natural History in Paris.

account of which may be found in the
Botanical Series of this Museum (vol. 17,
p. 558, 1939), under the title Aleurites Remyi.
A French collector, Jules Remy, had col-
lected somewhere in the Hawaiian Islands

from 1851 to 1855 some flowering branchlets
of kukui trees. These found their way into
the huge herbarium of the Museum of
Natural History at Paris and about 1938
were included in that museum's shipment
of material sent by Dr. H. Humbert, the
museum's director, to Chicago for study.

Most of the specimens were found to
represent the very common kukui tree of the
Hawaiian Islands and other tropical areas
of the earth, known to science as Aleurites
moluccana (a relative of the species exten-
sively cultivated in Florida and elsewhere as
a source of the tung oil of commerce).
Several detached leaves, however, were defi-
nitely of a different species, as could be
seen from their very slender, acute lobes
(see illustration). Failing to find any such
species described in botanical literature,
we appealed in a letter to Dr. Otto Degener
of Honolulu, a botanist who is widely re-
garded as the foremost living authority on

Dr. Otto Degener

Mrs. Thomas Jaggar

MUSEUM MEMBERS' NIGHT
Friday, October 7

Hawaiian plants, for any information that he
might have. He replied that he had a dim
recollection of a woman mentioning long
ago a similar, apparently new kukui. Some
months later, however, he succeeded in
extricating the lady's identity from his
memory. She was Mrs. Thomas Jaggar,
wife of the famous volcanologist (since
deceased) on the island of Hawaii. Dr.
Degener promptly wrote her for more
information.

Mrs. Jaggar, however, had to wait until
she could recall certainly where she had seen
an anomalous kukui tree growing. In
September, 1940, she made two trips to
places where she believed she had seen one.
On each trip she was rewarded by finding
a tree. Elsewhere I have presented fuller
details touching this peculiar case (American
Journal of Botany, vol. 31, p. 157, 1944), but
it may suffice here to say that Mrs. Jaggar
collected herbarium specimens and ripe
fruits from one tree. These she sent to
Dr. Degener, who sent them to Chicago.
The fruits were planted and a vigorous seed-
ling tree obtained in 1941. The tree has been
well protected at the University of Chicago
greenhouses and now is some 23 feet high.
Unfortunately it has failed to flower or fruit.

Meanwhile other collectors were spurred
on to search for this species, named Aleurites
Remyi for its original collector, to assist in
rounding out our knowledge of it. Miss
Amy Greenwell, in March, 1949, discovered

October, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 11

at Puuanahulu, western Hawaii, several
more trees of it, all of them young, and
obtained herbarium specimens for distri-
bution to various scientific institutions.
Chicago Natural History Museum received
two of these specimens through the kindness
of Dr. Degener.

CLOSER TO HOME

In seeking to solve problems closer to
home, we often have been agreeably sur-
prised at the alacrity and extreme courtesy
with which persons in some remote locality
hasten to be of service to us or, through us,
to science in general. An instance in mind
concerns the rediscovery in 1912 of the now
locally famous Kankakee mallow. An
extended account of this rediscovery was
presented in the magazine Rhodora for May,
1946 (vol. 48, p. 89). As stated there, it was
desired in 1912 by the Department of
Botany of this Museum to make fresh col-
lections for botanical studies and descrip-
tions of the Kankakee mallow, a plant
known at that time only from an island
in the Kankakee River. The elderly Rev.
E. J. Hill, who had collected the species
forty years before, consented, despite his
age, 79, to accompany two of us from the
Museum on a trip to the type locality, thus
enabling us to collect a large supply of
material.

Some four years afterward, the late Judge
Arthur W. De Selm of the circuit court in
Kankakee, learning that once again two
representatives from the Museum were in
Kankakee to collect specimens of the famous
mallow, hastily adjourned his court for the
day and placed himself at our service to aid
us in every possible way. Judge De Selm's
profession was, of course, law, but his inter-
est in botany was such that he had gradually
built up a considerable fund of plant lore.
On his own initiative some years earlier he
had gone to the island in the Kankakee
River, obtained vigorous specimens of the
Kankakee mallow, and planted them in his
yard, where they were laden with delight-
fully fragrant rose-colored flowers when they
were shown to us.

The rediscovery of the Kankakee mallow
had an interesting aftermath in the dis-
covery, by some botanists from the Univer-
sity of West Virginia a score of years later,
of a related species of mallow on Peters
Mountain at the Narrows, in southwestern
Virginia. But shortly afterward, the forests
on Peters Mountain were cut to the ground.
This so altered the type-habitat of the new
mallow that, in August, 1945, when we
journeyed there to make an investigation,
we were unable to locate the plants. We
appealed for aid to the principal of the
Narrows high school, Henry H. L. Smith,
who enlisted a senior student, James Hubert
Browning, to assist us. After a week of
difficult mountain climbing, Browning fi-
nally located two of the rare plants and
saved corroborative specimens for our

Museum's herbarium. His assistance was
especially fruitful in that it stimulated the
interest of other local enthusiasts in the
quest for what had seemed till then a pos-
sibly extinct species.

FRIENDLY AIDS

Thus our warm personal friend, Dr. P. D.
Strausbaugh, professor of botany at the
University of West Virginia, enlisted the
friendly aid of Dr. E. Meade McNeill of
Concord College, Athens, West Virginia.
Professor McNeill and two companions
very graciously undertook, even at the
expenditure of much time and great physical
effort, to rediscover the Peters Mountain
mallow. By climbing to the topmost ridge
and then walking along the ridge as a scout-
ing team, one in the center at the very crest
of the ridge and each companion spaced
about twenty or thirty feet lower down and
on opposite slopes, they resolved not to
overlook a single mallow plant. Their
thoroughness was repaid with finding
numerous plants, some of them growing in
clumps or even in small colonies.

As a result of the knowledge obtained
or opened up to us by these generous col-
laborators, we were able, on a return visit
to the Narrows in October, 1945, to climb
directly to where living plants were growing
and to make various critical and important
observations. As an outgrowth of these
observations, the Narrows or Peters Moun-
tain mallow was christened with a new
botanical name, Iliamna Corei, which dis-
tinguished it from the very different Kanka-
kee mallow, known to science as Iliamna
remola. Iliamna Corei was incorporated in
the large new eighth edition of Gray's
Manual.

The name Corei alluded to Dr. Earl L.
Core, of the University of West Virginia,
who was the original discoverer of the Peters
Mountain plant. It seems unfortunate that,
with the restrictions and limitations under
which our systems of nomenclature operate,
a commemorative collective name cannot
be devised to honor the ofttimes numerous
pioneers in the study of plant life who have
played an important role, though perhaps
merely as laymen, in introducing a plant
to science.

In the foregoing remarks I have sought
to show by a few random examples how
deeply conscious the staff members of
Chicago Natural History Museum have
been down through the years of the in-
valuable assistance given them by a host
of friends and correspondents and how much
they have depended upon this assistance.
It is upon such co-operative effort that much
of the Museum's claim to a high place in the

MUSEUM MEMBERS' NIGHT
Friday, October 7

MUSEUM SAFARIS-

(Continued from page 5)
recommends removing the entrails, pack-
ing the body with salt, and hanging it up
by the legs to dry.

About two centuries later, in 1748,
Reaumur, the celebrated French naturalist,
published instructions on "Divers means for
preserving from corruption dead birds ..."
outlining four methods: (a) skinning and
stuffing, (b) putting in spirits of wine or very
strong brandy, (c) embalming with powder,
and (d) drying in an oven. There was still
the problem of destruction of dried specimens
by insects, but with the introduction about
1740 of the use of arsenic to keep bugs
from eating the specimens, the way was
opened for modern collections.

The late start that bird collections got
is well illustrated by the British Museum,
long one of the most important museums
in the world, not only because of size and
completeness of its bird collections but also
because of its specimens of priceless his-
torical value. Its bird collections started
only about 200 years ago, in 1753, with the
acquisition of Sir Hans Sloane's cabinet
of 1,100 bird specimens.

MODERN METHOD

In the scientific world the standards of
preparation of bird specimens have improved
greatly. Now a museum bird specimen is
prepared by skinning completely, turning
the skin inside out like drawing off a glove,
leaving the cleaned skull and wing and leg
bones in the skin. The skin is coated with
a preservative, preferably white arsenic to
prevent insect damage, and turned right
side out. It is filled with a spindle-shaped
"body" of cotton or tow, with a slender
stick or wire running from bill to tail. The
bird is arranged with bill pointing ahead,
wings folded, legs crossed, tail straight, and
slightly spread. For all the world it looks
like a dead bird, lying on its back, feathers
smooth and clean. A last, and an all
important point too often ignored by early
collectors, is a label. The label is a must,
and on it must be (a) locality and (b) date,
at least. A specimen without a label loses
much of its value.

These specimens, study skins they're
called, can be completely prepared in the
field on safari. They are compact and can
be packed in boxes for shipment. Upon
arrival at the Museum they're unpacked,
sorted, and filed in our dust-proof cases
readily available for study and comparison.

scientific world is securely founded. We can
well afford to cultivate this co-operative
effort most assiduously, knowing that upon
it will depend, to a vast extent, the degree
of success which our Museum attains as
a great institution for the development
of science and the advancement of knowl-
edge of the world in which we live.

Page 12

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

October, 1955

EXHIBIT OFFERS LESSON
IN IVY SAFETY

"Oh, look at these beautiful leaves," said
the young woman as she started gathering
some to take a bit of autumn color home.
Regrettably, the leaves turned out to be
poison ivy and the young woman spent two
weeks in misery with a case of ivy dermatitis.
She — and thousands of others who suffer
similarly during the "outdoor" season —
could have avoided poison ivy and its
relative, poison sumac, by taking ten min-
utes to learn how to recognize these plants.

To encourage and help yon to do this,
a special exhibit on poison ivy, poison sumac,
and harmless plants often confused with
these poisonous species has been set up in
Stanley Field Hall. Studying the exhibit
for only a short time perhaps can save you
days of suffering later.

days through Fridays for parties of ten or
more persons. Requests for such service
must be made at least one week in advance.

SATURDAY LECTURES-

{Continued from page 9)
places and the scenery are Dr. Beck's ob-
servations of the people who are remaking
this country that so recently won its in-
dependence. But, as the film shows, the
people are nevertheless preserving their
cultural traditions — the temples, ceremonies,
and ritualistic dances and the famed native
jewelry-making, weaving of fine fabrics, and
woodcarving.

November 26— Excavating the Tomb of
a King (the Nimrud-Dagh explor-
ation in Turkey)

Kermit Goell

This is the story in color film of the
excavations at the mountain of Nimrud-
Dagh in Turkey, part of the important
empire ruled in ancient times by the Hittites.
The summit contains the tomb of Antiochus
I, king of Commagene, who reigned about
69 B.C. Kermit Goell is photographer for the
expedition that is now working there,
headed by his sister, Theresa Goell, an
archaeologist. Colossal stone heads and
figures have already been uncovered, and it
is expected that the expedition will pene-
trate the tomb this coming winter. Goell's
film records the activities of the expedition
and, in addition, is an ethnological document
of the lives of the present-day people who
inhabit the mountain villages of the area.

Museum Highlights Tours

Free guide-lecture tours are offered daily
except Sundays under the title "Highlights
of the Exhibits." These tours are designed
to give a general idea of the entire Museum
and its scope of activities. They begin at
2 P.M. on Monday through Friday and at
2:30 P.M. on Saturday.

Special tours on subjects within the range
of the Museum exhibits are available Mon-

STAFF NOTES

After completing studies of type specimens
of staphylinid beetles at various museums
in Europe under a grant from the National
Science Foundation, Dr. Charles H.
Seevers, Research Associate in Insects, has
returned to the Museum. He spent eight
months abroad, working chiefly at the
British Museum (Natural History), London,
and the Natuurhistorisch Museum in Maas-
tricht, The Netherlands .... Miss Pearl
Sonoda, Assistant in Fishes, has returned
from two months of research at the Hopkins
Marine Station maintained at Pacific Grove,
California, by Leland Stanford University
.... William D. Turnbull, formerly Pre-
parator in Paleontology, has been promoted
to Assistant Curator of Fossil Mammals
.... Mrs. Ellen Miller has been appointed
to the staff of guide-lecturers in the Ray-
mond Foundation. Mrs. Miller who pre-
pared for her career at Brooklyn College,
New York, and San Diego State Teachers
College in California, was formerly employed
at the University of Chicago.

NEW MEMBERS

(August 16 to September 14)

Associate Members

E. T. Kurzdorfer, Wrigley Offield, Erwin
A. Salk, P. B. Schnering, Gerald A. Sivage

Non'Resident Associate Member

Albert C. Droste

Sustaining Members

Vincent R. Bliss, Meyer Dry

Annual Members

Anthony J. Aurelio, Dr. Julius N. Bell,
Seymour Berman, Aldis J. Browne, Jr.,
Philip D. Caloger, Anthony R. Chiara,
Morton A. Davis, Ira T. Dawson, Frank
P. De Lay, A. F. Denemark, Frank De
Vuono, Paul H. Durrie, Miss Marie W.
Galle, H. Hunter Gehlbach, Hugo V. Genge,
Francis P. Gornick, Ernest H. Hallmann,
Harold L. Halvorson, Anders E. Hjerstedt,
Glen W. Holderby, Robert J. Hoshell,
Norbert S. Jacker, Walter O. Krebs, Stanley
J. Krzeminski, Mrs. J. J. Lewis, James F.
Niblick, B. P. Nilles, Thomas S. O'Connor,
William F. O'Rourke, Jr., J. F. Pendexter,
Henry L. Pitts, Dr. I. Robert Plotnick, Dr.
Carl M. Pohl, R. W. Regensburger, W.
Hunter Russell, E. H. Schuck, Charles
Schulien, F. W. Specht, Charles L. Stewart,
Jr., Oliver S. Turner, Floyd G. Van Etten,
Mrs. R. D. Van Kirk, John S. Varley, D. R.
Watson, Miss Laura M. Weber, Harrison
S. Weeks, Samuel E. Zeitlin

MUSEUM TV PROGRAMS
ON CHANNEL 11

WTTW, Chicago's new educational tele-
vision station that began test operations
last month, will include in its schedule
programs from Chicago Natural History
Museum on scientific subjects. First of the
Museum programs will go on the air at
9:30 P.M. on Friday, November 4, when
Dr. Karl P. Schmidt, Curator Emeritus of
Zoology, will present "The Truth About
Snake Stories."

Illinois Audubon Lectures

A series of five screen-tours to be pre-
sented on Sunday afternoons at 2:30 p.m.
in the James Simpson Theatre of the Mu-
seum is announced by the Illinois Audubon
Society. The first, on October 9, will be
"Hunting with a Microphone and Color
Camera," offering for the first time mag-
netic sound on film to permit greater fidelity
in the reproduction of the songs of birds.
The films, in color, were made by Prof.
Arthur A. Allen of Cornell University, who
will appear as lecturer. In order to record
the songs of the greatest possible variety of
birds, Allen ranged the length and breadth
of North America to make this film.

Seats in the reserved section of the Theatre
are available to Members of the Museum
and of the Audubon Society.

World Children's Day

In connection with World Children's Day,
set for October 3 by the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organi-
zation as a step in the campaign to over-
come nationalistic and racial frictions, the
Raymond Foundation of the Museum will
have a special program for children on
Saturday, October 1. Children at the
Museum that day will be invited to par-
ticipate in "Treasure Quests" in which they
will seek out exhibits pertaining to the
children of other lands. The program will
tie in with the first of the season's free
motion-picture presentations for children in
the James Simpson Theatre.

MUSEUM MEMBERS' NIGHT
Friday, October 7

GIFTS TO THE MUSEUM

DURING PAST MONTH

Following is a list of principal gifts
received during the past month.

Department of Anthropology:

From: Lester Bradford, Hebron,' Me. —
marimba. Sierra Leone, British West Africa

Department of Geology:

J. Desart, Chicago — uranium ore, car-
notite, and other unknown U308 in sand-
stone. New Mexico; John Patrick, Idaho
Springs, Colo. — topaz; Mrs. W. R. Smith,
Fall Church, Va. — thaumasite, prehnite, and
apophyllite

PRINTED BY CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PRESS

N

Vol.26.No.ll-Noveniber 1955

Chicago Natural
History Mus e um

■=\.

i

Page 2

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

November, 1955

Chicago Natural History Museum

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893

Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago 5

Telephone: WAbash 2-9410

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lester Armour Henry P. Isham

Sbwell L. Avery Hughston M. McBain

Wm. McCormick Blair William H. Mitchell

Walther Buchen John T. Pirie, Jr.

Walter J. Cummings Clarence B. Randall

Joseph N. Field George A. Richardson

Marshall Field John G. Searle

Marshall Field, Jr. Solomon A. Smith

Stanley Field Louis Ware

Samuel Insull, Jr. John P. Wilson

OFFICERS

Stanley Field President

Marshall Field First Vice-President

Hughston M. McBain Second Vice-President

Joseph N. Field Third Vice-President

Solomon A. Smith Treasurer

Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary

John R. Millar Assistant Secretary

THE BULLETIN

EDITOR
Clifford C. Gregg Director of the Museum

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology

Theodor Just Chief Curator of Botany

Sharat K. Roy Chief Curator of Geology

Austin L. Rand Chief Curator of Zoology

MANAGING EDITOR
H. B. Harte Public Relations Counsel

ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Helen A. MacMinn Jane Rockwell

MUSEUM 'TRAVELERS' ON ANIMAL STUDY JOURNEY

Members are requested to inform the Museum
promptly of changes of address.

MUSEUM MEMBERS' NIQHT
STIM ULA TES FRIENDLINESS

The Museum's fifth annual Members'
Night, held on the evening of October 7,
enabled the staff to give a better under-
standing of the institution's activities, pur-
poses and accomplishments to many of
those who support it. The number of
visitors, 1,093, was gratifying, and those
who came manifested a profound interest
in the ways in which the Museum functions.

Open house was held in the laboratories,
shops, studios, and offices of the scientific
staff and the various artists, taxidermists,
technicians, and others who assist in exhi-
bition preparation and in research. Demon-
strations of methods and special techniques
employed in Museum work were given.
The Members showed great interest in the
unique occupational specialties here that
have few parallels in the workaday world
except in other museums.

The Department of Geology furnished
the theme of the evening — "the Earth upon
which we live" — with a preview of its new
Hall of Physical Geology (Hall 34) con-
taining exhibits pertaining to the earth's
origin, age, structure, and composition.

The evening closed with the gathering of
most of the visitors in the James Simpson
Theatre, where Dr. Sharat K. Roy, Chief
Curator of Geology, gave an illustrated lec-
ture on volcanoes.

Learning about the animals that inhabit
a museum's halls are, above, left to right,
Randy Loftus, John Naples, Nick Mon-
tesana, and Richard Thomas, all of Chicago.
The boys are participating in the Raymond
Foundation's Museum Travelers Journey
No. 3: "Animals Around the World,"
a project open to boys and girls who are
interested in becoming "official" Museum
Travelers. The diligent quartet above will
have completed their journeys when they

-THIS MONTH'S COVER-

Our cover depicts a valley carved
by a valley glacier on its way from
the perpetual ice fields of the
mountain tops to the sea. The
photograph shows this phenome-
non as it is represented in one of
the four dioramas by Sculptor
George Marchand recently in-
stalled in the Museum's new Hall
of Physical Geology (Hall 34).
Valley glaciers are found on every
continent except Australia. They
originate in the perpetual snow
fields at high altitude where the
weight of the great accumulations
of ice and snow cause tongues of
ice to fiow through pre-existing
stream valleys to lower altitudes.
Commonly they reach the sea
where great blocks of ice cleave off
the front of the glacier and float
away as icebergs.

have answered all the questions found on the
questionnaires they are holding. When each
boy has completed four successive journeys,
he is eligible to receive an award.

Staff Notes

Dr. Karl P. Schmidt, Curator Emeritus
of Zoology, Dr. Theodor Just, Chief Cu-
ator of Botany, and Philip Hershkovitz,
Associate Curator of Mammals, represented
the Museum at the meeting of the American
Institute of Biological Sciences at Michigan
State College in East Lansing .... Robert
K. Wyant, Curator of Economic Geology,
has begun a year's leave of absence to
participate in a mineralogical project in the
West .... Dr. John B. Rinaldo, Assistant
Curator of Anthropology, participated in
a seminar on "Nomadic-Sedentary Culture
Patterns" under the auspices of the Society
for American Archaeology in Washington,

D.C Dr. Orlando Park, Professor of

Biology at Northwestern University, has
been appointed a Research Associate in the
Museum's Division of Insects. He is a re-
nowned ecologist.

Conference of Midwest Museums

The Midwest Museums Conference of the
American Association of Museums was held
in Chicago October 19-22. Chicago Natural
History Museum was one of the hosts.
Colonel Clifford C. Gregg, Director, wel-
comed the delegates, representing 135
museums, to a breakfast meeting at this
Museum on October 21. Many members
of the Museum staff participated.

November, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 3

ADVENTURES ABOUND
IN MUSEUM 'LABS'

By AUSTIN L. RAND

CHIEF CURATOR OF ZOOLOGY

ONE DAY an editor said to me, "Let's
call this new Museum bird-story of
yours 'Vicarious Adventures of a Bird
Man.'" "Oh, no we won't!" I said. It
was the "vicarious" part I objected to.
Adventure is a misunderstood word. To
many, the thrills of adventure are associated
only with travels to the ends of the earth;
some people get vicarious thrills reading
escapist literature; a few find thrilling spots
in their work — "adventures of everyday
life."

"Adventure" of course, has several shades
of meaning, for adventure is a subjective
thing. Those adventures with the element
of danger or risk are the ones expected of
returning explorers. But they're the ones
the wandering naturalist tries to avoid.
However, try as he will, in spite of fore-
thought and preparation and care, there
will always be some. I've had them myself.
Going down Mozambique Channel in a dhow
during the Northwest Monsoon once, trying
to dodge the squalls, we had the sails blown
off. Another time I narrowly escaped losing
all the expedition funds locked in my tin
trunk when a pirogue overturned in a flood-
swollen river near Maromandia in north-
western Madagascar. Once, atop a ridge
above the Mambarano River in New
Guinea, we had to turn out all hands to keep
our tents from blowing away. Again,
a giant forest tree came crashing across
camp and only the roots, tearing loose as the
tree swayed, woke the boys and enabled
them to escape. When a storm destroyed
the airplane that brought our supplies to
the headwaters of the Fly River, we had
to raft down the river, equipment, personnel,
specimens and all, for five days. I've stum-
bled upon a grizzly she-bear, with cubs, in
the waist-high brush on a Yukon hill and,
as the hair rose on her back, I went rapidly
away.

But adventures can also be stirring
thrilling experiences, not needing the sharp
spice of danger. Such adventures have
come to me in the field in plenty. I col-
lected a new genus of warbler in Madagascar,
recognizing that it was new, and the thrill
was repeated when Jean Delacour named it
for me, Randia. I found the unknown nest
and young of the aberrant relative of the
cranes that are called Mesetes. I've built
a hide (blind) by a magnificent bird-of-
paradise display ground and watched at
arm's length the bird's display. From the
hills above Dumaguete I've looked south
over the Sulu Sea and seen Siquijor shim-
mering in the brightness, apparently hang-
ing in the sky. At night I've sat on the
beach of Dipolog in Zamboanga and watched
the moving light of flying-fish fishermen.
I've heard wolves howl near my campfire in

Mackenzie Mountains, and the babacoote
wail in the mountain forests of Madagascar.

Adventures in a museum naturally follow
a different pattern, but the thrill of dis-
covery, of accomplishment, of wonder and
enjoyment is there, too.

The arrival of a collection is always an
event. I've had shipments from Japan,
Korea, India, the Philippines, Borneo,
Australia, Java, Turkey, Africa, Tristan da
Cunha, and Central America at Chicago

On the two pages that follow,
the story of what happens to a
bird collection after arrival at
at the Museum from the field is
told graphically in a series of
sketches by Artist Ruth Andris.

Natural History Museum. Each specimen
as it comes from the shipping case may be
new: like the new species of babbling thrush
from Negros, the new subspecies of a little
screech owl from the Philippines, a babbler
from Nepal, or the new thrush from Angola.
The specimens may represent new records
for the country, as a pigmy rail for Liberia
from the Beatty collection and a mangrove
warbler for Negros from the Rabor Col-
lection. Or, as still often happens, the
specimens may be new to our collections
and thus are another step toward the com-
plete representation of birds of the world
at which we aim.

There's no telling when discoveries may
be made. Some come when the birds are
unpacked — as the unpacking of a leaf-lined
bulbul's nest from Borneo recalled a snake-
skin trimmed nest from Madagascar and
led to an elaboration of the question of why
birds use snake-skins in their nests. But
discoveries are most likely to be made after
the specimens are unpacked, named ten-
tatively, arranged in trays, catalogued, filed
in their steel cases, and are being studied.

When we unpacked one shipment from the
Philippines, I arranged all the little green
leaf-warblers under the name they had been
known, Phylloscopus olivascens. But when
I measured them and compared them with
specimens already filed in our cases, I found
that two species had always been confused
under this one name.

RELATIONSHIPS CLARIFIED

The specimens of land birds in a shipment
from Tristan da Cunha were all well-known
species (and new to our collections) but
when I studied their relationships by com-
paring them with other species, and with
published accounts, I found that their an-
cestors all came from America, not some
from Africa as had been thought. Exami-
nation of a fresh casualty from the zoo,
a cassowary, led to an improvement in the

PHOTO CONTEST
DEADLINE SET

Amateur and professional photographers
are readying their entries for the world's
largest nature photography contest, results
of which will be exhibited in Stanley Field
Hall during the month of February.

Sponsored by the Nature Camera Club
of Chicago, the Chicago International Ex-
hibition of Nature Photography, now in its
eleventh consecutive year, will include
prints and color slides of scenery, animals,
plants, and other natural phenomena.

The deadline for entries is January 16,
but early entries are encouraged so that both
the contestants and the contest committee
can benefit from additional time to classify
and file the thousands of entries. The
contest consists of two divisions — prints and
color slides. In the print division, photo-
graphs may be either black and white or in
color. In both divisions, to be eligible,
entries must fall within one of three sub-
classifications: (1) Animal Life (2) Plant
Life, or (3) General.

understanding of cassowary moult, which
does not resemble the moult of penguins in
some particulars as has been thought. The
handling of a spur-winged plover and having
the horny covering of the spur come off
in my hand led to a survey of wing armature
in birds.

Ideas are where you find them, and these
are the things that we turn into scientific
papers, the end product of our research.
Our writings range from one-page notes on
such subjects as "Philippine Bird Names of
Blasius," short papers such as "Altitudinal
Variation in an African Grass Warbler" and
"Immature Females with Adult Male Plu-
mage," to modest monographs such as
"Social Feeding Behavior in Birds" and
more comprehensive accounts such as my
forthcoming "Checklist of Philippine Birds."

Our accomplishments do not end there.
We make our information available to the
general public too. Emmet R. Blake, Cu-
rator of Birds, wrote Birds of Mexico, A
Guide for Field Identification for the bird-
loving public going to Mexico, and together
we wrote Birds the World Over, an illustrated
guide to this Museum's Hall of Habitat
Groups of Birds (Hall 20). There are also
our popular articles such as we write for our
Museum Bulletin and which, collected into
book form as Stray Feathers from a Bird
Man's Desk (Doubleday), go out to the
reading public.

These are the products of our work. The
specimens in our cases and the published
accounts based on our observations and
reading are the tangible results of our
stewardship. These things give us our ad-
ventures, and final presentation to the
public is their highlight.

WHAT HAPPENS H

BY AUSTIN L. RAND, W

When a new collection arrives at Chicago Natural Histor
Museum it is incorporated into the permanent referenc
file of specimens, the Museum's "Bird Collection," and i

By plane or by ship and then by train the packing cases full of specimens arrive
in Chicago, to be brought to the Museum by truck.

How the boxes are addressed.

An accession card is made for our records wit!
the origin and general description of the coUec
tion and checked with the invoice.

■2^

The individual label on each specimen must b*
in order, with place and date of capture ant
the collector's name, at least.

It is always an event when a new collection arrives and the
whole stafi of the Division of Birds gathers to help unpack
it and sort the specimens into trays.

The collection is catalogued: each specimen is numbered and
the data from the label is entered opposite the corresponding
number in the catalogue, where now (1955) about 240,000
specimens are listed. ^

The- >pej -ens, wrapped in paper or cotton, lie
side by side, row upon row, tier upon tier, tightly
packed in the cases.

They arc removed and unwrapped.

The newly arrived birds are finally identified and incorporated into the Museum bird collection. This is arranged
in a natural systematic order, the most primitive birds first. The specimens are placed in rows in drawers in the
dust'proof, light-proof steel cases of the bird range, available for easy reference. The collection is, in efiect, a
seU-indexing file.

Pagei

A BIRD COLLECTION

DRAWINGS BY RUTH ANDRIS

used in research on taxonomy, classification, relationships,
moult, zoogeography, etc. Our collection is arranged in
systematic order like a great card file and is self'indexing.

1.3^^-

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y^^

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1

A

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Measuring the bill.

Measuring the length
of the wing.

Critically comparing specimens.

..■ngm^lm^^

Research on the collection includes careful
detailed examination of the specimens.

A.

.-^ .x

Checking the specimens against published descrip-
ions and pictures in books.

A report on the collection is written. The "tools" of the Museum
bird man are pen and paper, ruler, dividers, files^ maps, books, and
bird specimens.

f:^*ti!6ki-.dW2:X-A»

\Heu Fru

Notes in our files are looked up.

Ml:

The report is typed.

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Manuscript ready for
the printer.

\ continuing task is reading and indexing the current
iterature that floods into the library each week. Thus
ye keep track of progress in our field.

The finished product: a few of the 70 separate publications (as listed in the Museum*!
Annual Reports) written by the Museum's bird-division sta'fi in the past six years.

Page 5

Page 6

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

November, 1955

"DP's" OF 14th CENTURY IN OUR SOUTHWEST

By PAUL S. MARTIN

CHIEF CURATOR, DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY

ANEW CHAPTER— perhaps the con-
cluding one — in reconstructing the life
of the prehistoric MogoUon Indians of
western New Mexico was unfolded this past
summer. It reveals the folkways of a people
who built a village overlooking the Blue
River Valley and then finally abandoned
forever their homes and farms about a.d.
1350 and moved elsewhere. What catas-
trophic event caused this upheaval of
a tribe whose ancestors had dwelt in the
land for about 5,000 years?

The answer is not easy. However, some
new information was obtained by the Mu-

do not know what they called themselves)
may have lived in skin tents and depended
for food largely on gathering seeds, nuts,
berries, bulbs, and on hunting small game.
Later (about 2000 B.C.), the idea of farming
corn, beans, and squash was adopted. Still
later, the ideas of making pottery and of
building pit-houses were borrowed from
more southern tribes. By the beginning of
the second or third century before Christ,
the nucleus of a civilization had come
into being. One extraordinary feature of
this fledgling culture was the presence of
religious buildings. A large pit-house was
set aside in each village for devotional use
even in the earliest times. Through the ages,

PRINCIPAL SOUTHWEST EXCAVATION OF 1955
Comprehensive view of the Foote Canyon site unearthed by the Museum's Archaeological Expedition. This
structure, containing dwelling rooms and a kiva or church-like chamber, is believed to have been in use
about A.D. 1350. The worker in foreground where room is in process of excavation is David Collier.

seum's 1955 Archaeological Expedition to
the Southwest to help in solving some of the
problems we have been wrestling with for
twelve seasons, and to give us new per-
spectives and dimensions. But first, a brief
review of the history of the MogoUon
Indians is in order.

FIVE THOUSAND YEARS AGO

About 5,000 years ago, a group of Indians
emigrated from southern Arizona to the
Pine Lawn Valley area (near the present-day
town of Reserve, New Mexico). They had
left their homeland because the lakes and
rivers were drying up.

The new settlers slowly established them-
selves in their new environment and during
the following centuries added refinments to
their civilization. At first, these MogoUon
Indians (so named by archaeologists — we

while many other cultural changes were
taking place, the church building was always
found in each village, and it gradually
became more elaborate and larger.

At about A.D. 1000, another innovation
was introduced, namely surface houses or
compact village units containing five to
twenty contiguous rooms with walls laid up
of rock. This type of housing is vastly
different from the earlier widely-scattered
pit-houses.

The foregoing brings us chronologically
down to about a.d. 1200 and to the digging
season of 1955.

GOALS OF EXPEDITION

The goals of our excavations and re-
searches in the Southwest have been mani-
fold; but the important ones are to learn
(1) why a particular culture or civilization

develops; (2) why and how it changes; and
(3) why it declines and dies. These prob-
lems all have a direct bearing on our daily
lives because their answers may help us to
prevent our own civilization from withering.

We now have a fair idea about the genesis
of the MogoUon civilization and many of the
changes that took place over five millenia;
but why the MogoUon Indians rather
suddenly abandoned the forested area of
west central New Mexico is a mystery. The
region contained many of the major elements
attractive to farmers: arable land, streams,
game, wild plants, and a bracing climate.
Why did they uproot themselves from all
this?

The favorite explanation had been that
enemies (perhaps Apaches) had driven them
out. It was assumed the latest sites would
be fortified and that one would find evidence
of carnage. But in 1954, we excavated
several "late" sites that were probably
abandoned about a.d. 1250, and none of
these villages was fortified. They were
built on an open plain or on low hills near
rivers. No signs of walled enclosures, forts,
or carnage were found.

THE LAST VILLAGE

In 1955, after diligent search with the
help of friends, notably Dr. E. B. Danson
of the faculty of the University of Arizona,
we found what was perhaps the last village
to have been occupied.

The village itself, known as the "Foote
Canyon Site," is perched atop a low mesa,
some 75 feet high, around which curves the
Blue River. The ground floor rooms of the
village apartment house, a section of which
may have been two stories high, probably
number 50. The rooms are arranged about
the four sides of a quadrangle, inside of
which was a roofed plaza and probably
a church or kiva. Access was by means of
a gate or portal in the plaza and perhaps by
entrances leading directly into the outer
tier of rooms.

We excavated 15 rooms, the plaza, and
parts of the refuse dump. At the foot of the
mesa we discovered a second large rectangu-
lar kiva with a ramp entrance. This cere-
monial chamber probably served as a relig-
ious center for a few other nearby villages.

One of the most significant, although
tiniest finds, was a copper bell that we
picked up on the plaza floor. It is slightly
crushed, possibly from being stepped on by
one of the religious dancers. Bells were
worn as bracelets and anklets in dances.
This is the first piece of copper found in our
MogoUon area and is important because it
suggests there may have been trade with
the people of Mexico or the Indians of
southern Arizona.

One fact that impressed us was the evi-
dence of restlessness displayed in the
architecture. Rooms were added or altered
in size; partitions were thrown up or torn

November, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 7

down. Dissatisfaction with the apartments
was demonstrated time after time. We had
noted the same trend in earlier buildings, but
the changes seemed more abundant in the
1955 site.

We sensed that a constant urge to change
was a fundamental trait of Mogollon
civilization. So, when times became hard,
it was natural for these Indians to pull up
stakes and move. They were not tied down
to their homes and possessions which
represented a very limited investment.
Erection of a village probably took only
a few months; pottery and tools of bone and
stone could be turned out in a matter
of days.

Then, M»/!a< caused them to become "DP's."
We know certainly that neither Apaches nor
other enemies pushed them out. Our
Indians moved because they wanted to.
It is possible that drought made farming
difficult. It may be that the priests decreed
a move to offset bad luck or black magic.
Or a wave of restlessness may have spread
over the Southwest and our Indians may
have responded to a general pattern.
Maybe they were like our pioneers and
frontiersmen who simply did not fit into
a settled existence — were troubled with
"itchy feet." They were voluntary dis-
placed persons.

When they moved, they took their most
valuable and portable possessions, leaving
behind mostly the heavy corn mills of stone
and the large storage pots. But most of the
"juicy" items that archaeologists dream of
finding were removed and we found rooms
as bare as Mother Hubbard's cupboard.

CLUES TO DATE OF HEGIRA

The dating of the exodus is not yet finally
settled and may not be for some time. But
we guess that the abandonment took place
between a.d. 1325 and 1400 — probably
nearer 1350. This guess is predicated on the
presence of certain types of pottery that

THE CAT THAT BECAME A PATRON OF SCIENCE

CJOiNItNlS OF MOGOLLON GRAVL
Human bones and accompanying ceremonial pottery
dug from burial by Southwest Archaeological Ex-
pedition. Interment date estimated at A.D. 1350.

have been dated approximately elsewhere
in the Southwest. We found some types
that occur in the earlier houses at the
present Indian village of Zuni — about 40
miles south of Gallup, New Mexico.

The presence of some Arizona and Zuni

By emmet R. BLAKE

CURATOR OF BIRDS

THE PREDILECTION of cats for
canaries has given rise to a saying known
to every child. Almost forgotten is the
remarkable feat of one cat that discovered,
collected, delivered to its master, and
finally harassed to extinction a species of
bird only twice glimpsed in life by human
eyes. By its unique achievement this
anonymous tabby made history of a sort,
and in so doing surpassed the efforts of any
man in a similar field.

Our drama began, and unfortunately
ended, late in the last century. The locale
was Stephen Island, a rocky, partly wooded
islet between North and South Islands of
New Zealand. Although hardly a quarter
of a mile in area, Stephen Island was the
home of a Dr. Lyall, R. N., keeper of its
lighthouse. With Dr. Lyall lived a eat.

The stage is set. Enter pussy. One day
while prowling the islet THE CAT (surely
a beast destined to achieve distinction as
a patron of science should be honored once
by capitals) killed a small, wren-like bird
and brought its body home, as cats some-
times do. We can surmise that Dr. Lyall
was pleased by this show of esteem and no
doubt rewarded the purring animal with an
affectionate pat. And well he might. This
bird, skinned and preserved as a scientific
specimen, was sent to Lord Rothschild, the
eminent British ornithologist, who found
that it represented a species new to science.
Named Traversia lyalli in honor of the cat's

pottery types gave us not only a date but
also a clue as to where these people went.
We believe that they moved we.stward into
Arizona (a quick look at the area provided
the necessary evidence) and eventually
northward towards Zuni land. We shall
follow them next summer.

Our researches thus far, then, have con-
tributed in a modest way to the history of
civilization. We found a "cell" or a small
colony of primitive people who in 5,000
years trudged along the arduous and dim
path of self-improvement. We have watched
this "cell" expand, change, become more
efficient in satisfying human wants and
needs, and finally move on in answer to an
inexorable demand that causes all segments
of human society to improve.

The expedition's work required a staff of
able and stout assistants to carry on all
of the unspectacular but necessary chores
— cooking, digging, pushing the truck out
of muddy ditches, washing and sorting pot-
tery, cataloguing artifacts. Dr. John B.
Rinaldo, Assistant Curator of Archaeology,
was my executive aid. Our helpers and
colleagues included Mrs. Martha Perry, Mr.
and Mrs. Alan P. Olson, David Collier,
Roland Strassburger, Robert Lamb, Walter
and Marvin Hooser, and John Menges.

master, this specimen is now deposited in
the reference collection of New York's
American Museum of Natural History.

Meanwhile our cat was not idle, as re-
corded events of the period clearly show.
No sluggard, it! Afield each day, the cat
found and caught other birds like the first,

and Dr. Lyall preserved about a dozen
individuals. How many others may have
been destroyed by the cat will never be
known. All too soon the chase became
futile and no more mangled bodies were
brought to the lighthouse keeper.

Sixty-odd years have elapsed with no
further word of the Stephen Island wren
in its homeland. All that we know or can
ever know of this bird, must be learned
from the dozen or so specimens that are
preserved in museums. Of the bird's song,
its food, and its habits — perhaps all known
at least in part by the cat — we have no
intimation.

New Contributor Elected
In recognition of notable gifts to the
Museum, Robert Trier of Chicago was
elected a Contributor at a recent meeting
of the Board of Trustees. Contributors are
a special membership class including all
whose gifts in funds or materials for the
collections range from $1,000 to $100,000 in
value. Mr. Trier's contributions have been
primarily ethnological material for addition
to the Department of Anthropology.

Guatemalan Museum Director Here

Dr. Jorge A. Ibarra, Director of the Museo
de Historia Natural, at Parque de "La
Aurora" in Guatemala City, was a recent
visitor at Chicago Natural History
Museum. During his stay he inspected the
exhibits, studied the manner of preservation
of animal and plant specimens, and conferred
with Museum personnel. He is the founder
of the Natural History Mu.seum in Guate-
mala City and in Quezaltenango.

Page 8

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

November, 1955

FOUR SATURDAY LECTURES
IN NOVEMBER

South America, islands of the Indian
Ocean, Indonesia, and Turkey are still to be
visited via the remaining four lectures with
color films to be given in the autumn series
on Saturdays during November in the James
Simpson Theatre of the Museum. The
lectures, to all of which admission is free,
begin at 2:30 p.m. They are presented under
the provisions of the Edward E. Ayer
Lecture Foundation Fund.

Although limited accommodations make it
necessary to restrict admittance to adults,
children will have their own series of free
motion-picture programs, provided by the
Raymond Foundation, on the mornings of
the same Saturdays.

The programs for adults are as follows:

November 5 — Brazil

Karl Robinson

November 12 — From Dodos to Devil
Rays (in the remote islands of the
Indian Ocean)

Quentin Keynes

November 19 — Indonesia Today

Lester F. Beck

November 25 — Excavating the Tomb of
a King (the Nimrud-Dagh explor-
ation in Turliey)

Kermit Goell

No tickets are necessary for admission
to these lectures. A section of the Theatre
is allocated to Members of the Museum,
each of whom is entitled to two reserved
seats. Requests for these seats should be
made in advance by telephone (W Abash
2-9410) or in writing, and seats will be held
in the Member's name until 2:25 o'clock
on the lecture day.

EVERGLADES JUNGLE
IN AUDUBON FILM

"A Touch of the Tropics" is the title of
a screen-tour to be presented at Chicago
Natural History Museum on Sunday after-
noon, November 6, at 2:30, by the Illinois
Audubon Society. William H. Wagoner, Jr.,
will be the lecturer. This is the second
in the current series of lectures presented
by the Audubon group, and will be given
in the James Simpson Theatre of the
Museum.

Mr. Wagoner's color films and narrative
will take his audience into remote parts of
southern Florida, completely away from the
famous crowded winter resort areas. They
will go deep into the Everglades, a watery
subtropical world where jungle meets
swamp, key and sunken reef, all unlike
anything else in North America. It is the
record of a long trip by danoe through

shadowy aisles of moss-hung cypress trees,
the home of eagles, ibises, egrets, ospreys,
spoonbills. Alligators are seen lazing in the
sun or sliding, with a splash and clatter, away
from view. Of special interest are Mr.
Wagoner's underwater motion pictures in
which the colorful creatures of another
world are brought face-to-face with the
audience.

Admission is free and seats in the reserved
section of the Theatre are available to
Members of the Museum and Members
of the Audubon Society.

GIFTS TO THE MUSEUM

Following is a list of principal gifts re-
ceived during the past month:

Department o£ Botany:

From: Pfc. Harvey Beeler, Seattle, Wash.
— 2 Lycopodiums, Alaska; Dr. L. J. Gier,
Liberty, Mo. — 23 phanerogams; Institute
of Plant Industry, Madhya Bharat, India
— 6 samples of agricultural legume seeds;
George Moore, Glencoe, Mo. — Anemone
virginiana; Reparticao Central dos Services
de Agricultura, Luanda, Angola — 41 legume
seeds; Dr. W. F. Edmonson, Seattle — alga;
Dr. Roberto Llamas, Mexico City — isotype
of Tradescantia Llamasii Matuda; Dr. K.
W. Lord, Auckland, New Zealand — 2 algae

Department of Geology:

From: Museum of Comparative Zoology
Cambridge, Mass. — cast of jaw, Florida

Department of Zoology:

Roger Boe, Broadview, 111. — 11 frogs,
6 inland shells; Beatrice Bond, Chicago —
elephant beetle, Dutch Guinea; Lt. Col.
K. F. Burns, Fort Sam Houston, Tex. —
2 bats, Arkansas and Texas; Dr. H. Holub,
Indonesia — birdskin, 2 king crabs; Dr.
Robert F. Inger, Homewood, 111. — 3 frogs,
2 snakes; E. V. Komarek, Thomasville,
Georgia — 5 mammal skins, 10 skulls, Georgia
and Florida; Dr. Charles H. Lowe, Jr.,
Tucson, Ariz. — 5 lizards, 6 snakes, Mexico
and Arizona; Museo de Historia Natural,
Montevideo, Uruguay — 3 fresh-water shells

NEW MEMBERS

(September 15 to October 14)

Contributor

Robert Trier

Non-Resident Life Member

Clarence P. Ehlers

Associate Metnbers

Carl G. Bingham, Dr. Vincent A. Cos-
tanzo, Wendell Dahlberg, Mrs. Anna Du-
dak, Louis G. Glick, Mrs. Charles G. King,
Bartholomew O'Toole, Spencer Thomas
Shumway

Sustaining Member

Mark Price

Annual Members

Miss Jacquelyn Aeby, Robert Clyde
Barker, Arthur H. Barton, Bennitt E.
Bates, Mrs. Clarence W. Bowen, Arthur
S. Bowes, Ralph L. Braucher, Henry J.
Briede, Mrs. Daniel H. Burnham, Miss
Herma Clark, Bruce M. Cole, Theodore A.

SATURDAY MOVIES
FOR CHILDREN

Four more free programs of movies for
children will be given at the Museum on
Saturday mornings in November. They will
be presented at 10:30 A.M. in the James
Simpson Theatre under the auspices of the
James Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond
Foundation.

Children are invited to attend the pro-
grams alone, accompanied by parents or
other adults, or in groups from schools, clubs,
or other centers. No tickets are needed.
Following are the titles and dates:

November 5 — Some Favorite Animals

Also a cartoon

November 12 — Ti-Jean Goes Lumbering

And other lumbering stories
Also a cartoon

November 19 — Winter Hobbies

Also a cartoon ,

November 26 — Wind from the West

Lapland story
Also a cartoon

Daily Guide Lectures

Free guide-lecture tours are offered daily
except Sundays under the title "Highlights
of the Exhibits." These tours are designed
to give a general idea of the entire Museum
and its scope of activities. They begin at
2 P.M. on Monday through Friday and at
2:30 P.M. on Saturday.

Special tours on subjects within the range
of the Museum exhibits are available Mon-
days through Fridays for parties of ten or
more persons. Requests for such service
must be made at least one week in advance.

Although there are no tours on Sundays,
the Museum is open from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M.

Criel, Seymour Dalkoff, Joseph W. Dennis,
Miss Mary W. Eldred, Herman L. Epstein,
James C. Gaudio, Miss Margaret G. Ger-
aghty, Joseph P. Gibson, Jr., Mrs. Denise
Granger, Burdett Green, Mrs. Northa P.
Groves, Dr. Henry A. Hanelin, Chester C.
Hart, Miss Elizabeth M. Hartung, Leonard
W. Hein, H. Douglas Henkle, Jack Hen-
ningsen, R. M. Hitshew, Harvey H. How-
ard, Mrs. H. D. Humphrey, Walter L.
Jacobs, Dr. Fiske Jones, C. R. Jordan, Dr.
John W. Jordan, Mortimer I. Kahn, Jr.,
Claude Kendall, Ralph Keller, Miss Jane
Laird, Kenneth G. Leigh, Mrs. William
Loehde, Walter L. Lowe, Mrs. John P.
Lubking, Calvin D. McKay, Mrs. Kaye
Meana, Russell E. Mooney, Miss Nelle B.
Morley, Don Paul Nathanson, Fred H.
Nesbitt, Richard Norian, Canute R. Olsen,
Robert P. Oreck, Austin Hadley Parker, Mrs.
W. J. Podbielniak, Mrs. Stephen Polyak,
A. J. Refakes, Dr. Edwin C. Ringa, Roland
G. Schmitt, Charles F. Schwartz, L. L. Shep-
ard, John P. Suomela, Miss Joanne Steiner,
Lang S. Thompson, Warren Triggs, James N.
Wagnum, Mrs. Alex H. Waterman, Stanley
Wojteczko, Otto H. Zimmerman

PRINTED BY CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PRESS

Page 2

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

December, 1955

Chicago Natural History Museum

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893

Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago 5

Telephone: WAbasb 2-9410

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lester Armour Henry P. Isham

Sewell L. Avery Hughston M. McBain

Wm. McCormick Blair Wbj-iam H. Mitchell

Walther Buchen John T. Pirie, Jr.

Walter J. Cummings Clarence B. Randall

Joseph N. Field George A. Richardson

Marshall Field John G. Searle

Marshall Field, Jr. Solomon A. Smith

Stanley Field 1,ouis Ware

Samuel Insull, Jr. John P. Wilson

OFFICERS

Stanley Field President

Marshall Field Firat Viee-Preeident

Hughston M. McBain Second Vice-President

Joseph N. Field Third Vice-President

Solomon A. Smith Treasurer

Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary

John R. Millar Assistant Secretary

THE BULLETIN

EDITOR
Clifford C. Gregg Director of the Museum

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

PAlHi S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology

Theodor Just Chief Curator of Botany

Sharat K. Roy Chief Curator of Geology

Austin L. Rand Chief Curator of Zoology

MANAGING EDITOR
H. B. Harte Public Relations Counsel

ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Helen A. MacMinn Jane Rockwell

Members are requested to inform the Museum
promptly of changes of address.

NEW ARCHAEOLOGICAL VISTAS
OPENED IN CHICAGO AREA

By ELAINE BLUHM
assistant in archaeology

DURING the spring and summer
months the Museum's Chicago Ar-
chaeological Project has been engaged in
a survey of the Chicago region. The author
and Philip Young, a student employe of the
Department of Anthropology, spent many
Saturdays and Sundays exploring fields and
creek banks looking for sites of Indian en-
campments. Clues to the location of these
sites come from people who have collections
of arrowheads and other relics from the area,
from old maps, and from promising locations
found during the study of topographic maps.
While the work is by no means finished,
much information has been obtained about
the area closest to the city. At present we
may divide the prehistoric occupation of the
Chicago region into three periods: (1) an
early period (about 3,000 to 4,000 years
ago) when the area was occupied by small
nomadic hunting peoples who lived in tem-
porary camp sites and had tools of stone
but made no pottery; (2) a Woodland
period (about 1,000 to 2,000 years ago)
when there were people living in small
farming villages, making thick pottery and
stone and bone tools; (3) the last period
(about 1,000 to 300 years ago) when the
Indians lived in larger villages, farmed and

hunted in the surrounding area, made thin
pottery and many kinds of stone and bone
tools.

The archaeological survey has located
a large number of early sites, several of the
latest type, but very few of the middle
period. This may mean that we are not
looking in the right places, or it may mean
that there were very few people in the area
at that time.

The camp sites of the early hunters were
of particular interest this season and were
the only ones dug. In order to learn more
about them, two were selected for further
study, and several test trenches were ex-

CHICAGO AREA ARTIFACTS
Ax, spearheads, knives and scrapers used by early
Indian hunters who inhabited the region around
what is now Chicago about 3,000 to 4,000 years
ago. Recovered on *'dig" sponsored by Museum.

cavated in each. We are very grateful to
the owners of these sites who granted us
permission to dig and to the students and
Earth Science Club members who volun-
teered to do the work.

Both camp sites were shallow — no more
than eight inches deep, and all of the stone
tools were found on or near the surface.
While this was disappointing, for we had
hoped for deeper sites which might yield
more information, it is not surprising, for
the sites were probably occupied for short
periods of time by small groups, and in the
last 60 years both fields have been plowed
and the surfaces eroded.

Because there is no way of dating these
sites exactly, we can only guess that they
are as old as similar sites in other parts of
the eastern United States which were occu-
pied between 3,000 and 4,000 years ago.
Artifacts from the sites consist of projectile
points or spear heads 13^^ to 2 inches long,
often with small notches at the sides; small
flakes of flint with worked edges; and larger
pieces of flint crudely chipped to form
scraping and cutting tools. Occasionally
a site yields a stone ax or a milling stone for
grinding seeds or nuts. Marine shells were
found, on two sites, a fact that suggests
trade between the Chicago area and the
Gulf of Mexico at an early date.

More work must be done on these early
sites for there is much to learn about the
early inhabitants of the area. We hope that

-THIS MONTH'S COVBR-

The scene, one of the new ex-
hibits in Hall 34 (Physical Geol-
ogy), prepared by George Mar-
chand, sculptor and artist, re-
presents one of the many chambers
in Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico,
noted for its great size and for
magnificent ornamentation. The
interior is decorated with deposits
of lime formed by a slow seepage
of lime-charged water from nu-
merous joints and crevices in the
roofs and walls. These deposits
have assumed fantastic forms and
produced an underground scenery
of weird and spectacular beauty.
Caverns, the world over, have been
the result, principally, of solution
by ground water. They are gen-
erally developed in bedded lime-
stone, which permits the water to
continue its work of solution
more readily than in rocks that
are less soluble and that have
fewer or no openings.

someday we may locate an early campsite
with fire-pits and perhaps storage pits. In
this way we shall find out more about the
daily life of the Indians and perhaps obtain
charcoal which can be dated by the Carbon-
14 method.

STAFF NOTES

Dr. Austin L. Rand, Chief Curator of
Zoology, and Emmet R. Blake, Curator of
Birds, attended the recent meeting in Boston
of the American Ornithologists' Union.
After the six-day meeting. Curator Blake
went on to study research collections in
museums of Cambridge, New York, Phila-
delphia, Washington, and Pittsburgh ....
Dr. Rainer Zangerl, Curator of Fossil
Reptiles, and Dr. Eugene S. Richardson,
Jr., Curator of Fossil Invertebrates, re-
ported on the progress of the Museum's
"Mecca (Indiana) Project" at the annual
meeting of the Geological Society of America
recently held in New Orleans .... Dr. Paul
S. Martin, Chief Curator of Anthropology,
was recently guest speaker for an evening
class of Chicago's Central Y.M.C.A. in its
series of "Visits with Interesting People."
.... Miss Elaine Bluhm, Assistant in
Archaeology, has been granted a four-month
leave of absence from November 1 to accept
a temporary post as research assistant on
a Southwest archaeology project at the
University of Illinois, Champaign.

Cut and uncut specimens of nearly every
known precious and semiprecious stone are
displayed in H. N. Higinbotham Hall of
Gems and Jewels (Hall 31).

December, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page S

A BOOK IS GOOD, BUT MUSEUM SHOWS THE REAL THING!

By AUSTIN L. RAND

CHIEF CURATOR, DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY

OUR ANIMAL EXHIBITS do not con-
stitute a "dead circus," nor are they
"cabinets of curiosities." Rather they at-
tempt to portray the wealth of variety of
animal life — to show the order and arrange-
ment that pervades nature's profusion of
organisms and to show how animals live,
how they get along with or depend on each
other and their environment, and how they
are spread over the globe.

This is a tall order. In trying to meet it,
we must remember that the possession of
the real objects is the Museum's unique
feature. Fascinating charts, diagrams, and
models may be made, but to present the
real objects is the Museum's main function.
Our exhibits must be real, not fake. Ideas
and theories can be found in books; schemes
and models and diagrams can be found
elsewhere. Only in a museum can one see
the real thing. Not that color and design
and models have no place in our exhibits,
for they do. There is no reason why an
arrangement cannot be pleasing as well as
tell a story; why colors cannot be chosen for
effect, and background design made attrac-
tive. Charts, models, and diagrams can
emphasize and expand the story told by the
real objects. Models must be used some-
times, but a single genuine feather, for
instance, would add tremendously to the
importance of the model of the dodo we
display.

THREE TYPES OF EXHIBITS

However, one can get a surfeit of match-
less treasures. Variety is needed, not only
in presentation but also in approach. To
meet this requirement we have three types
of exhibits in the bird halls: the systematic
series; the idea exhibits, each expressing
a different biological principle; and the
habitat groups.

The systematic series is the backbone of
museum exhibition. It portrays the basic
data: these are the kinds of things there are
in the field. But there's no need to go off
the deep end and try to present every single
species and every single variant when
a synoptic series will do. Our series of birds
of the world (Hall 21, Boardman Conover
Hall) is such a synoptic series. These
exhibits are laid out at the family level.
There are 300 species in the sparrow family,
but we have chosen twelve as sufficient to
show the range of structure and color pat-
tern in the family. The drongo family,
of 20 species, is represented by two species.
Continuity in this series is the one of
evolution. The families are arranged in
a sequence with the nearest relatives to-
gether, from the most primitive to the most
highly evolved, from penguin and ostrich
to sparrows.

There are occasions when a complete
representation of part of the field is advis-
able, as in our North American bird series.
Enough people are interested in identifying
our local birds to justify having what is in
effect a study collection on exhibition.

AVOIDING MONOTONY

It is in the systematic series that mo-
notony, the curse of museum exhibition, is
most diflScult to avoid. We've tried to
relieve monotony by design and color and
by the introduction of collateral material:

On the two pages that follow,
the story of some of the more
Important steps Involved In
preparation of the Museum's
exhibits Is told graphically In a
series of drawings by Staff
Illustrator E. John Pfiffner.

a tailor-bird's nest with the Old World
warblers; a picture in the exhibit of weaver-
birds of one tying a knot; a picture of
oxpeckers on a cow with the starlings.

In addition, through the systematic series
we have scattered exhibits with a different
approach, the biological exhibits, as we call
them. These go beyond simple relationships
and portray other principles, such as the one
illustrating the dependence of all living
things on the earth for material and the sun
for energy. Some organisms get these
directly as do plants; others get them
second-hand, as do mice that eat the plants;
some at third-hand, as the owl that eats the
mouse. The chain could be indefinitely
extended through parasites and predators
until bacteria turned the final predator back
to the soil for plants to use again. Other
such exhibits show reproduction, nests and
eggs, growth, speciation, hybridization, and
migration.

This variety is important, for the interest-
span of humans is short. Only the serious
student on duty will concentrate for long.
Most of our visitors are on vacation or in
holiday spirit. They are strolling through
our halls to see new and different things,
usually with no particular interest in
a specific field. We cannot expect them to
examine systematically all our material
spread out for them. The comparison
comes to mind of a special feast held one
evening a week in the Manila Hotel when
I was there last year. Great rows of
delectables were put out. I couldn't do
more than sample a small portion of the
dishes each time. In our Museum we have
spread an intellectual feast, and we strive
to meet the challenge to make the items
attractive and interesting enough that the

casual visitor will find at least a few things
here and there to stop and sample.

FASCINATION OF THE FAMILIAR

The great amount of new material spread
before the first-time visitor to the Museum
may make him feel like a stranger in a con-
vention whose members, all labeled, he is
meeting for the first time. Then to en-
counter in a Museum exhibit a robin such
as nests in his own yard is as welcome as the
sight of a face from his home town. One
way we have capitalized on this human
trait is to have an exhibit on bird-feeding
stations, where familiar birds appear as
actors in demonstrations of the methods
people can use in putting out food, keeping
water supplies from freezing in winter by
electricity, planting for a garden, and
providing nest boxes. It's one of the popular
exhibits in the hall and an example of mixing
the known with the unknown. Who knows;
the person inveigled to stop at these familiar
things may also look at the exotic pheasants
displayed at one side and the exotic parrots
at the other.

The habitat groups are an elaborate
presentation of bits of countryside with their
birds. They give the observer the impres-
sion that he is right there, looking into
marsh, savanna, forest, or plain, with the
birds going about their business undisturbed.
Walking through our Hall of Bird Habitat
Groups (Hall 20) is like embarking on
a journey from continent to continent, visit-
ing deserts, mountains, and coral atolls and
looking at the birds there, all in the course
of a half hour.

Dr. Karl P. Schmidt, Curator Emeritus
of Zoology, has written in an earlier
Bulletin of the era of rethinking in museum
exhibitions, of the change from accumulation
of specimens to their more intelligent use,
of the separation of the extensive study
material and the selected exhibition ma-
terial. He has also pointed out that this
intelligent selection is hard work. But the
ends justify it, as we hope visitors to our
halls will agree.

Michigan Research Project

A project of digging and research of
importance to three departments of the
Museum was recently begun at Michillinda,
Michigan, by George I. Quimby, Curator
of North American Archaeology and Eth-
nology, and Dr. John W. Thieret, Curator
of Economic Botany. The investigation
centers upon a recently exposed bed of peat
discovered by Harry W. Getz, of Moline,
Illinois. Co-operating are two glacial
geologists from the University of Michigan.
It is anticipated that valuable information
concerning fossil plant seeds, late glacial
geology, and paleo-Indian environment will
be forthcoming when the data are analyzed.

EXHIBITS: ONE OF THE MUSEUM'S P]

BY AUSTIN L. RAND ILLUSTRATED BY E. JOHN PFIFFNER

Onl)r a few of the many thousands of Museum specimens are with'
drawn from the study collection and placed on public exhibition.

These may be incorporated into
below, or into a variety of other exhi

8. Finished birds ready for the exhibit.

9. A background is painted, using photographs as a guide. 10. Leaves of lilies are made of wax and cotl

Page i

)DUCTS

groups as shown
tratcd at the right.

B. Links in the web of life
sun — grass — mouse — owl

-"^jJ

A. A transparent mirror turns a white
winter ptarmigan to a brown summer one.

again
skin.

MOUSE

13. Specimens illustrate various things: the inter-
dependence of living things and their environment;
seasonal changes in color and in geographic range;
and the variety and relationships of Uving things.

OWL

AMERICAN HONEY CREE

Natural sedge is wired in place and colored, and groundwork is made of earth mixed with shellac. 12. The finished habitat group— an African landscape in Chicago.

Pane 5

Page 6

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

December, 1955

A Merry Christmas! . . .

AND HAVE A CUP
OF HOLLY TEA

By jane ROCKWELL

IF YOU ARE ONE of the millions whose
home this Christmas will reflect the
added cheer of one or more branches of
holly, you and the other 1955 holly fans
form only a small fraction of a vast pro-
cession of holly-gatherers whose number has
been steadily increasing over the centuries.

When individuals first began coveting
holly, the plant was considered a symbol of
good luck or amity and thus extremely
desirable to have around. Basically this
attitude has changed little through the ages,
except in restrictions resulting from various
interpretations put upon the woody plant
from time to time.

First to introduce holly into homes, it
seems, were the pagans of early Europe, who
did so to provide refuge for tiny and friendly
fairies of the forest. Holly as a hearth
decoration was quite well established before
the advent of the Christian era, but the
Christians were loath to accept holly decora-
tion as a custom because holly was associ-
ated with the Roman festival of Saturnalia.
Saturn, the god of seedtime and harvest,
was feted at this time with, among other
things, a generous amount of gross indul-
gence and revelry. Later when the date of
the annual Christmas celebration was
changed to late December, holly decoration
was adopted by the Christians, and since
then the plant has become an important
part of the Christmas festivities.

UNLUCKY CONSEQUENCES

Legend, folklore, song — all have helped
to shape the significance of the holly — and
some superstitions about the plant persist
even today. Several of these, contained in
a list published in 1908 by W. Dallimore in
Holly, Yew and Box, warn of unlucky con-
sequences if the rules of holly decoration
aren't properly observed. Holly was con-
sidered unlucky if it was taken into a house-
hold before Christmas Eve or if it wasn't
removed before Candlemas Eve (February
2), when goblins were supposed to appear
and frighten the maidens who had failed to
perform this duty. Visitors were cautioned
not to take holly into an invalid's room as
the afflicted person would then be visited by
disaster and possible death. Another legend
stated that smooth- or rough-leaved holly
entering the house would determine whether
the wife or husband was to rule the house-
hold during the ensuing year. And still
another belief based on a different seasonal
viewpoint warned that holly decorations
must be taken down on Shrove Tuesday,
when the holly should be burned in the same
fire on which pancakes had been fried! In
India and Persia, where holly leaves take on
great significance in religious observances.

the face of a new-born child is sprinkled
with water impregnated with holly bark.

There is no relationship between the
words "holly" and "holy" as is sometimes
suspected. Their etymological sources are
quite different, and their relationship,
therefore, can be described only as senti-
mental, not semantical. Holly is the modern
form of the old English word "hollen,"
which was variously spelled "hollin,"
"holegn," "holie," and "holee." Surnames
such as Hulm, Holmes, and Hulme, come
from the same root-sources as holly, as do
such American and British place-names as
Holmestead, Holmville, Holmestone, Holly-
wood, and Mount Holly. European coun-
tries have their own names for holly: acebo
in Spain, le houx in France, schubbig hard-
kelk in the Netherlands, agrifolio in Italy,
Christdorn or hullz in Germany, and stik-
palme in Denmark.

Approximately three hundred species of
holly have been described and are included
in the genus Ilex of the family Aquifoliaceae,
and new ones are still being found. Of
the 19 species native to the United
States, Ilex opaca is most commonly used
for Christmas decoration. It grows along
the Atlantic seaboard and in the east-
central states, west to northeastern Missouri.
Excluding the western part of the United
States where no species of the genus Ilex
are native, many regions are bereft of holly,
although its growth there is entirely possible.

POPULAR BEVERAGE, TOO

The value of holly is not limited to indoor
and outdoor decoration. From time im-
memorial an infusion of the leaves of certain
species of Ilex has resulted in a mixture that
has been used both as a beverage and as an
emetic or purifying medicine. Extremely
popular with the American Indians, who
often wove elaborate ceremonies about its
preparation and consumption, the stimu-
lating drink also was adopted enthusiasti-
cally in this country by European settlers.
It has variously been called cassena, yapon,
and the "black drink" and has been pre-
pared from the leaves of one species or
a combination of species, mainly Ilex
vomitoria and Ilex dahoon. The tea-like
beverage, which contains caffeine, is now
used in this country only locally and in
limited amounts, but in South America
leaves from the species Ilex Paraguariensis
are responsible for the popular beverage
yerba mate, important in domestic and
export trade in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay,
Chile, and Peru.

Holly, the world over, provides food for
squirrels and birds, particularly the migrat-
ing robin, and the flowers of the holly are
a great favorite of honeybees. Moreover,
because of its light color and fine grain
the wood of the holly tree or shrub makes
excellent furniture, notably small articles.
Although it achieves its fame around

Christmas time, holly performs its useful
and attractive functions all year around.

ADVENTURES IN ROCKIES
ON AUDUBON PROGRAM

Some of America's most spectacular
scenery and some of its most interesting
animals are to be found high in the Rocky
Mountains of Colorado. They will be
brought on film to an audience at the
Museum on Sunday afternoon, January 8,
at 2:30 o'clock, in the third of the series of
screen-tours offered by the Illinois Audubon
Society.

W. Emerson Scott, eminent naturalist
who made his color motion-pictures in
seldom-traveled paths among the rugged
peaks, will appear as lecturer with his film
"Rocky Mountain Rambles." Especially
notable are scenes showing the spectacular
bighorn sheep and their lambs in their
daring but sure-footed leaps over the rim-
rocks. Other fascinating sequences are
those of herds of lordly elk, many kinds of
birds, flowers, and trees, and frightening
chasms and roaring rivers.

The film and lecture will be presented in
the James Simpson Theatre. Seats in the
reserved section of the auditorium are free
to Members of the Museum and of the
Audubon Society upon presentation of their
membership cards.

FIVE JUDGES APPOINTED
FOR NATURE PHOTOS

Camera enthusiasts are urged to submit
promptly their entries for the Eleventh
Chicago International Exhibition of Nature
Photography to be held at the Museum
from February 1 to 28. The deadline for
entries is January 16. The contest is held
under the joint auspices of the Chicago
Nature Camera Club and the Museum.

A panel of five judges has been appointed
to select from among the thousands of
entries the several hundred photographs to
be shown. The judges are: William J.
Beecher, Naturalist of the Cook County
Forest Preserve District; Philip Hersh-
kovitz. Associate Curator of Mammals at
the Museum; John W. Mulder, Ranger-
Naturalist of the National Park Service;
and George W. Blaha and George M. Wood,
well-known photographers.

Entries are to be in two divisions — prints
and color slides. There are three classifi-
cations in each division: animal life, plant
life, and general (scenery, clouds, geological
formations, etc.). Silver medals and ribbons
will be awarded in each classification of each
division.

On Christmas and New Year's Day the
Museum will be closed so that its employes
may be with their families.

December, 1955

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 7

4-H Winners Visit Museum

As it has for many years past, the Museum
welcomed some 1,400 farm boys and girls
from all parts of the United States and
Canada on November 29. They were in
Chicago as winners of awards for excellence
of achievement in their home communities,
coming as delegates to the National Congress
of 4-H Clubs held annually in conjunction
with the International Livestock Expo-
sition. They were assisted in making the
most of their Museum visit by the entire
staff of Raymond Foundation lecturers.

EXHIBIT SHOWS IRIDESCENCE IN HUMMINGBIRDS

"PEBBLE PUPS" SNAP UP
BOOK WITH SPECIMENS

The Museum Book Shop staff recently
reported that they are victims of a relent-
less and heavily concentrated attack — by
"pebble pups" — and, at last report, the mass
invasion shows no indication tof subsiding.
For those not familiar with these formidable
invaders, pebble pups are the junior equiva-
lents of rockhounds, as adult rock-collectors
call themselves.

The cause of all the furor in The Book
Shop is a new book published by the
Museum, For Pebble Pups, A Collecting
Guide for Junior Geologists written by Dolla
Cox Weaver, Raymond Foundation lec-
turer. Accompanying the book is a set of
18 representative rock and mineral speci-
mens to be used as a handy reference with
material in the book.

Written for the amateur collector from
eight to twelve years of age, the 95-page
book, which includes 27 photographs, pro-
vides numerous facts with which the average
adult is unacquainted. Mrs. Weaver,
a specialist in geology, introduces her pebble
pups to the wondrous world of rock and
mineral collecting, telling them of volcanoes,
caverns, open-pit mines, cliffs, and moun-
tains and describing various rocks and
minerals and their sources. The author
outlines the simple equipment needed by
the young collector and suggests other
readings should he want to go on with this
rewarding hobby.

For Pebble Pups and its accompanying
set of rocks and minerals can be purchased
for $1.25 at The Book Shop of the Museum.

J. R.

Daily Guide Lectures

Free guide-lecture tours are offered daily
except Sundays under the title "Highlights
of the Exhibits." These tours are designed
to give a general idea of the entire Museum
and its scope of activities. They begin at
2 P.M. on Monday through Friday and at
2:30 P.M. on Saturday.

Special tours on subjects within the range
of the Museum exhibits are available Mon-
days through Fridays for parties of ten or
more persons. Requests for such service
must be made at least one week in advance.

By emmet R. BLAKE

CURATOR OF BIRDS

IRIDESCENCE in hummingbirds is the
theme of a new exhibit recently installed
in Hall 20, the Museum's gallery of bird
habitat groups. This exhibit was first
opened to the public early last month as one
of several displays featured on Members'

y

^

>

/

YOU HAVE TO COME TO THE MUSEUM . . .
... no photograph, not even one in full natural colors, could begin to tell
the story of this new exhibit of hummingbirds in which their startling
iridescence is brought into view by an ingenious system of automatically alter-
nating lights. Included in the exhibit are seven out of 350 described species
that embrace a total of more than 650 varieties.

Night (October 7). It is strikingly different
from any other in the hall, and in certain
respects unlike any other exhibit in the
Museum.

Soon after entering Hall 20 from the east
(Stanley Field Hall) the eye is caught and
held by one or several brilliant spots of color
— ruby, emerald, purple, or golden bronze —
that appear to be suspended in a velvety
black void at the end of the Laysan alba-
tross case. Even as one watches, additional
spots of color appear, at intervals of 10
seconds, until a total of seven are visible.
Soon all disappear for a few moments until
the cycle starts once more. One's first
impression is of assorted jewels of great
brilliance displayed in a darkened case. Not
until one approaches very closely is it ap-
parent that the "jewels" are, in fact, the
iridescent plumage of hummingbirds illumi-
nated by small concealed spotlights.

The phenomenon of iridescence is not
uncommon in the Animal Kingdom. Among
birds it is especially conspicuous in hum-

mingbirds. Although most members of this
family are green above, males of many
species have additional patches of iridescent
feathers that seem to glow or sparkle, and
to change in color with the incidence of
light. The physical basis of iridescence may
be of several types; in birds the phenomenon
is caused by interference of the light waves
reflected from the sur-
faces of the barbules
with the light waves
reflected from deeper
portions of the bar-
bules.

Unlike the tradi-
tional static museum
display, the new ex-
^^^ hibit is essentially dy-

^^^^ namic in that it under-

^1^^^ goes a cycle of changes

^^^ activated by an elec-

tric timer circuit.
Although the principle
of mechanized dy-
namic natural-history
exhibits is not new, it
represents an impor-
tant step in the evo-
lution of museum ed-
ucational techniques
and is gaining in popu-
larity. Iridescence in
Hummingbirds is the
latest of six such ex-
hibits thus far in-
stalled in the Museum.
The others include
Fluorescent Minerals
(corridor between
Halls 36 and 37), three
of the four new Phys-
ical Geology diora-
mas in the center of
Hall 34, and X-raying a Mummy in the
Hall of Egyptian Archaeology (Hall J).

Free interchange of ideas, as well as
specimens, between natural history museums
the world over is traditional, and always
a matter of deep satisfaction. New tech-
niques developed by one institution are
quickly made available to all by means of
publications and correspondence, and es-
pecially by periodical tours of inspection
that enable museum personnel to exchange
ideas. Our latest exhibit, for example, is
modeled after a similar display seen by the
Museum's President, Stanley Field, while
on a visit to the British Museum.

It is gratifying that certain exhibition
techniques, now considered standard, origi-
nated in our Museum. Of special note is
the revolutionary cellulose-acetate process
that was developed by Leon L. Walters for
the treatment of reptiles and related ani-
mals. The more recent anthropology halls
of the Museum introduce exhibition con-
cepts that have stimulated great interest.

Page 8

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

December, 1955

MUSEUM'S 'MECCA' PROJECT
ON CHANNEL 11-TV

"Pilgrimage to Mecca" will be presented
on WTTW (Channel 11), Chicago's new
educational television station, on Wednes-
day, December 14, at 7 p.m. Dr. Rainer
Zangerl, Curator of Fossil Reptiles, and
Dr. Eugene S. Richardson, Jr., Curator of
Fossil Invertebrates, will tell the story of the
quarry that they transported to the Museum
from Mecca, Indiana. For two years they
and a corps of assistants have patiently
split the black shale of the kidnapped
quarry, charting all fossil debris and re-
covering thousands of specimens for the
Museum's permanent collection.

The magnitude of their task in moving
the Mecca Quarry to the Museum can be
realized from the dimensions of the site:
15 feet long, 13 feet wide, and 14 inches
thick. To excavate the shale bed from
beneath a sloping hillside, it was necessary
to remove many tons of overburden, making
a quarry wall 12 feet high. The shale slabs
were labeled in the field and the quarry
was reassembled on the floor of a Museum
laboratory.

The purpose of the Mecca Project is not
principally the accumulation of new speci-
mens. The careful recording of size, posi-
tion, and character of the entire fossil con-
tent of the shale is designed to provide
unusually accurate data for the recon-
struction of the animal community and its
changing environment during the advance
of a Coal Age sea across a forested lowland.
However, the fossils recovered for the
Museum's collection have turned out to be
exceptionally interesting in themselves.
Some are entirely new to science; others are
nearly complete specimens of sharks and
shark-like fishes previously known only
from isolated teeth or spines. A shrimp-
like crustacean, formerly known from a
single, imperfect specimen, has been col-
lected by the hundreds from the quarry.

GIFTS TO THE MUSEUM

Following is a list of principal gifts re-
ceived during the past month:

Department o£ Anthropology:

From: Byron Harvey III, Albuquerque,
N.M. — black and white ladle (prehistoric
Hopi), Oraibi, Arizona; Carl G. Kropff,
Chicago — 7 archaeological specimens, Point
Barrow, Alaska

Department of Botany:

From: Mrs. F. H. McVey, Valparaiso, Ind.
— Monotropa uniflora; W. J. Newhouse,
Honolulu — lichen, Caroline Islands; Dr. E.
S. Richardson, Jr., Gurnee, 111. — fungus; Dr.
Jacques Rousseau, Montreal — 8 algae; Dr.
M. R. Suxena, Hyderabad, Decian, India
— alga; Agricultural Research Station, Li-
longwe, Nyassaland — 29 samples of seeds;
Conservator of Forests, Sandakan, North
Borneo — 21 hand samples of North Borneo
timbers; Department of Agriculture, Kitale,

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING MADE AN EASY TASK!
. . . THE MUSEUM WILL DO IT FOR YOU

Christmas shopping is made an easy task by two special services
offered by Chicago Natural History Museum. You need not stir out of
your home — and you don't have to wrap any packages. Here's how
you can buy and send your gifts in complete comfort, away from all
crowds and confusion:

(1) Christmas Gift Memberships

Send to the Director the name and
address of the person to whom you wish
to give a Museum membership, together
with your remittance to cover member-
ship fee (see enclosed Christmas gift
membership order form).

An attractive Christmas card will
notify the recipient that through your
generosity he has been elected a Member
of the Museum. He will receive also his
membership card and information on
membership privileges.

(2) Museum Book Shop Gifts

Books endorsed for scientific authen-
ticity by members of the Museum staff
are on sale in the BOOK SHOP. The
selection is for both adults and children.

When desired, the BOOK SHOP will
handle orders by mail and telephone
(W Abash 2-9410). It will undertake all
details of wrapping and dispatching gift
purchases to the designated recipients,
together with such personal greetings as
the purchaser may specify, charging only
postal costs.

Kenya — 45 samples of seeds; Director of
Agricultural Research, Ibadan, Nigeria —
11 samples of seeds; Institut National pour
I'Etude Agronomique du Congo Beige, Yan-
gambi, Belgian Congo — 11 samples of seeds

Department of Geology:

From: Oriental Institute, Chicago — 9
Upper Cretaceous fishes, 150 Cretaceous
and Tertiary Invertebrates, Lebanon and
Syria

Department of Zoology:

From: F. Plattner, Tabriz, Iran— 35
fresh-water shells; W. Sugden, Cookham,
Berks, England — 610 seashells, Dukhan,
Quatar Peninsula, Persian Gulf; August
Ziemer, Evergreen Park, 111. — 85 seashells,
Solomon Islands, 63 land shells, Wisconsin;
Dr. Conrad Blomquist, Chicago — mole
snake, Virginia; Miss Margaret Bradbury,
Evanston, 111. — 415 lots of preserved fishes;
Robert J. Drake, Tucson, Ariz. — 4 snails,
northern Mexico; Dr. Henry Field, Coco-
nut Grove, Fla. — 6 fresh-water shells,
Pakistan; James E. Gillaspy, Twin Falls,
Idaho — 8 wasps; Werner H. Gottsch,
Houston, Texas — an alligator; John Hem-
ingway, Homewood, 111. — an alligator,
Louisiana; Harry Hoogstraal, Cairo, Egypt
— 10 birds, Turkey; Dr. Clark Hubbs, Austin,
Texas — 78 fishes, Texas, Mexico and Costa
Rica; N. L. H. Krauss, Honolulu — 8 tree
frogs, Mexico; Lt. Comdr. Don C. Lowrie,
San Francisco — a snake, Okinawa Island;
Dr. Sherman Minton, Indianapolis —
a snake, Texas; Museo de Historia Natural,
Montevideo, Uruguay — 5 fresh-water clams;
Dr. Charles A. Reed, Chicago — 346 am-
phibians and reptiles, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon;
William A. Thomas, Chicago — 10 bird-skins,
Arctic America; Lt. Col. F. Burns, Fort Sam
Houston, Texas — 5 bats, Texas and Lou-
isiana

Library:

Books from Dr. Theodor Just, Oak Park,
111.

NEW MEMBERS

(October 17 to November 15)

Associate Members

Thomas G. Cassady, Gerard J. Eger,
Mrs. Marshall L. Hayward, Jr., Earle
Ludgin, C. Bouton McDougal, James J.
O'Sullivan, Mrs. A. S. Roebuck, Julian J.
(Pat) Romane, Mrs. Nell Y. Searle, Vincent

D. Sill, James B. Vogel

Sustaining Members

Clayton Ashe, Stewart B. Matthews

Annual Members

Mrs. Anne Adams, Gordon Aitken, Alfred
Akerhaugen, William A. Anderson, Mitchell
N. Barnett, Stephen D. Barnett, Albert S.
Barney, B. B. Button, Jr., Colin L. Camp-
bell, Ernest E. Clarke, Dr. T. Howard
Clarke, John L. Clarkson, John Carey
Culbertson, S. A. Culbertson III, Raymond
M. Dunkle, Jr., Dr. Eugene A. Edwards,
G. H. Edwards, Bernard M. Fisher, Bernard
Fleischman, George A. Fort, Arthur E. Fox,
Forrest L. Eraser, Miss Maude Gordon,
Arthur S. Gomberg, Miss Catherine Harti-
gan, Jerome J. Hochberg, Dr. Robert H.
HoUis, Philip L. Howard, Castle W. Jordan,
Richard B. Kappler, Edward C. Lensing,
Jr., Maury Lieber, Ira G. Marks, Harvey
R. Mason, E. F. McGuire, Dr. Francisco
Mendizabal, Allen C. Michaels, Bernard
Miller, Norman Miller, Charles A. Nixon,
Charles J. Nowlan, Dr. Andrew J. Ober-
lander, Philip Pinsof, Mrs. Mary H. Russell,
Mrs. Stanley Savage, Edwin C. Schlake,
Thomas G. Sexton, Miss Bessie C. Sten-
house, Mrs. Borden Stevenson, Mrs. Roy

E. Sturtevant, E. V. Sundt, Dr. W. V.
Thompson, Dr. David D. Turow, Mrs. Ruth
Ushijima, A. L. Van Ness, John A. Wagner,
Mrs. Russell Wiles, Miss Carolyn R. Wray,
Robert L. Wreath, T. L. Yates, Charles
B. Zeller

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